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Review
Andrew Lycett [brings] lots of fresh, carefully researched detail to the boozy and sex-obsessed private life. (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (4.7.04) )
Untapped archives and tireless research have shed a fresh light on the short life of literary sensation Dylan Thomas...This biography...is a tragic yet compelling read. (DAILY EXPRESS (.9.7.04) )
[an] enjoyable biography...often very funny. (SUNDAY TIMES (11.7.04) )
[Lycett] succeeds in painting a surprisingly sympathetic picture of the man. (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY (22.8.04) )
Untapped archives and tireless research have shed a fresh light on the short life of literary sensation Dylan Thomas...This biography...is a tragic yet compelling read. (DAILY EXPRESS (.9.7.04) )
[an] enjoyable biography...often very funny. (SUNDAY TIMES (11.7.04) )
[Lycett] succeeds in painting a surprisingly sympathetic picture of the man. (Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY (22.8.04) )
SUNDAY TIMES (11.7.04)
'[an] enjoyable biography...often very funny.'
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First Sentence
Type the title of Dylan Thomas's villanelle 'Do not go gentle into that good night' into the Google search engine on the world wide web; tell it you want those exact words, in that particular order, and it will provide 21,000 direct hits. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Type the title of Dylan Thomas's villanelle 'Do not go gentle into that good night' into the Google search engine on the world wide web; tell it you want those exact words, in that particular order, and it will provide 21,000 direct hits. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I had read and admired Andrew Lycett's previous biographies (of Ian Fleming and Rudyard Kipling), and so when I was in London recently I went to hear him lecture, and I picked up a copy of this book, knowing it might take months for a US publisher to pick it up. I suggest they move fast, because this book is absolutely brilliant.
Lycett understands and clarifies what seem to be the important components of Dylan Thomas's life - his "Welshness" (or not), his poetry, his relationships, particularly with Caitlin, his drinking, his sexual behavior (or not), and his response to America (and vice versa). And as with his previous masterworks, Lycett puts it all into its social and historical context. Even I - who has not, till now, been a great reader of poetry - found his analyses of the poetry highly seductive. And in so many ways Dylan Thomas comes across as a highly contemporary - and relevant - figure.
This book is beautifully and fluidly written, and it puts Andrew Lycett in the very top class of biographers.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I apologise for the flippant nature of my earlier review, realising now that it was not helpful. I can only plead that, in the excitement of reading, I felt moved to write something that one of his companions in Soho might have typed out, on the old Remington, late at night, after a chaotic evening in Dylan's presence.
The genius of Lycett's book, it seems to me, is that his research enables him to take us there, literally day by day, to follow an extraordinary life. Lycett also adds his own wry comments, never harsh but always illuminating, as though he, in fact, were one of that raucous, happy and sad crowd who knew they were experiencing a special, yet impossible being. Some of the stories about Dylan's behaviour keep me laughing out loud. The sadnesses move me to tears. And, above all, is the beauty of Dylan's words. My favourite poem in English, with plenty of runners up,(Donne especially, whom I think Dylan appreciated), has long been 'Fern Hill' and 'Under Milk Wood' can only grow upon one every time of reading, or, better still, listening. Lycett lets us know how these masterpieces came about. The photographs are also wonderfully revealing. Can you beat the one on the cover?
A further strength of Lycett's assessment is his placing Dylan in the contemporary and historical context of English poetry, something of which Dylan was very aware. Although, I hesitate at this point, because Dylan Thomas was not simply (?) a poet. Lycett shows how many talents he had in other fields, especially screen writing & broadcasting &, above all, his effect on others who were in his presence & who usually loved him.
As a family therapist myself, I also admire the way that Lycett has sought to reveal the influence upon Dylan of life at his parents' lovely address, over the years ... the teenaged Rimbaud.
We can all learn so much from this wonderful book.
The genius of Lycett's book, it seems to me, is that his research enables him to take us there, literally day by day, to follow an extraordinary life. Lycett also adds his own wry comments, never harsh but always illuminating, as though he, in fact, were one of that raucous, happy and sad crowd who knew they were experiencing a special, yet impossible being. Some of the stories about Dylan's behaviour keep me laughing out loud. The sadnesses move me to tears. And, above all, is the beauty of Dylan's words. My favourite poem in English, with plenty of runners up,(Donne especially, whom I think Dylan appreciated), has long been 'Fern Hill' and 'Under Milk Wood' can only grow upon one every time of reading, or, better still, listening. Lycett lets us know how these masterpieces came about. The photographs are also wonderfully revealing. Can you beat the one on the cover?
A further strength of Lycett's assessment is his placing Dylan in the contemporary and historical context of English poetry, something of which Dylan was very aware. Although, I hesitate at this point, because Dylan Thomas was not simply (?) a poet. Lycett shows how many talents he had in other fields, especially screen writing & broadcasting &, above all, his effect on others who were in his presence & who usually loved him.
As a family therapist myself, I also admire the way that Lycett has sought to reveal the influence upon Dylan of life at his parents' lovely address, over the years ... the teenaged Rimbaud.
We can all learn so much from this wonderful book.
' ... though I sang in my chains like the sea'.
David Irwin.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this because by accident I went to the beautiful area of the Boathouse and decided to visit the house - Dylan having been a big poet in the 60's when I was at school. I had grown used to the idea that his poetry was passe and overblown but going through the exhibits it struck me agin how good some of it was, and what a strange thing his alcoholism was fluffed over...Reading this book was a revelation; richly researched with perhaps a bit too much detail on his contacts it brought home how far we are from the 50s and also what an amazing man he was in many ways. I'd have loved to have seen him recite live or perhaps even been in the pub when his acute way with words was at his best. One of the books I mulled over for days afterwards and now have an expression 'going for a Dylan' (beer) said in fondness actually..!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Wet
Book arrived wet. Was offered the right to refuse by the carrier but decided that as it was not a gift, to accept it.
Published on 21 Jan 2010 by Mrs. C. Journeaux
In the greystained Soho streets ...,
I plummetted and twirled, as ever green about the face amidst the red roaring girls and ranting poetical boys. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2003 by David Irwin
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