This is the follow-up to the author's previous biography, the critically acclaimed and sales success, "The Last Englishman". It is a hilarious and extraordinary story of a singular man. It describes the life of one of 20th-century English literature's greatest poets. It features R.S. Thomas's poetry published by Penguin Modern Classics, Orion and Bloodaxe with substantial sales every year. He is regarded in Wales as the national poet. Byron Rogers' previous books for Aurum have twice been Radio 4 Book of the week. This is sure to be widely reviewed. Byron Rogers' first biography, of the novelist and publisher J.L. Carr, was read on "Book of the Week", reprinted twice, sold 5000 copies in hardback and was hailed by Simon Jenkins in "The Times" as 'a miniature masterpiece of social history'. For his second biography Rogers - a Welshman who moved to England - has found the perfect subject: the great Welsh poet R.S. Thomas (an English-educated man who set out to become more and more Welsh throughout his life). Thomas is now accepted, along with Ted Hughes, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney, as one of the great post-war British poets. All his life, he was a minister in the Church of Wales, at a succession of increasingly remote country parishes. He had a reputation for being an austere, unforgiving, taciturn, wintry man. Now Byron Rogers has unearthed the amazing story of this man's life, and that of his household - one both comic, absurd and touching. Here is a man who banned Hoovers from his house on grounds of noise, whose first act on moving into an ancient cottage was to rip out the central heating, whose attempts to seek out more authentically Welsh parishes only brought him more into contact with loud English holidaymakers. To Thomas's many admirers this will be a surprising, sometimes shocking, but at last humanising portrait of someone who wrote truly metaphysical poetry.
The MAN WHO WENT INTO THE WEST: THE LIFE OF R.S THOMAS
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Review
'As readable and rounded a life of the man as could be written' -- The Tablet
'This wonderful book ... ought to win every award for which it is eligible.' -- Andrew Martin, Sunday Telegraph
One of the most brilliant biographies I have ever read, written with a magical combination of sympathy and horror -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
The austerity and extremism of Thomas’s life and work are tackled with sensitivity and a sprightly wit. -- The Times
'This wonderful book ... ought to win every award for which it is eligible.' -- Andrew Martin, Sunday Telegraph
One of the most brilliant biographies I have ever read, written with a magical combination of sympathy and horror -- Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
The austerity and extremism of Thomas’s life and work are tackled with sensitivity and a sprightly wit. -- The Times
About the Author
Byron Rogers' previous books include An Audience with an Elephant, The Bank Manager and the Holy Grail, The Last Englishman and The Last Human Cannonball. All are published by Aurum. He lives in Carmarthen and Northamptonshire.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
By Zoe King
Format:Hardcover
It's fair to say that Welsh priest and poet, RS Thomas (1913 - 2000), the oft-called `Ogre of Wales', was a man who drew strong and contradictory responses from those around him. While his literary executor, Professor Meurig Wynn Thomas wrote of him as `the Alexander Solzhenitsyn of Wales' in light of his habitual challenge to the Welsh conscience, Philip Larkin, in letters, referred to him as `Arsewipe Thomas'.
In this truly compulsive and often very funny biography, Byron Rogers goes way beyond the previously documented Thomas, the man who raged against the evils of domestic appliances and who refused to have even a refrigerator in his house because of the noise it made, who spent years with his artist wife, Elsi, while barely speaking to her, who ranted from the pulpit at his parishioners, but who would hide behind hedges rather than speak to them if he encountered them in the open.
Here we see Thomas in his many paradoxes - the Christian pacifist who nonetheless supported Welsh Nationalism and the firebombing of English holiday cottages in the 1980s - (what is one death against the death of the whole Welsh nation?) for instance, the man who despite his cut glass Oxford English tones, and the private English education he gave his son, only stopped `going West' in his quest for Welshness when he met the sea at Aberdaron in 1967, `thinking, to use his own image, to kiss the feet of the Welsh rainbow'.
Despite the paradoxes, and Thomas himself was well aware of them, he was a poet of immense, sometimes breathtaking talent, and in this delightful and very `human' biography, Byron Rogers brings us to a far greater understanding of the man and his passions. To read it is to be suffused with a sudden and urgent desire to revisit and reassess the work of this `barmy old coot'.
Zoe King - Cadenza magazine
In this truly compulsive and often very funny biography, Byron Rogers goes way beyond the previously documented Thomas, the man who raged against the evils of domestic appliances and who refused to have even a refrigerator in his house because of the noise it made, who spent years with his artist wife, Elsi, while barely speaking to her, who ranted from the pulpit at his parishioners, but who would hide behind hedges rather than speak to them if he encountered them in the open.
Here we see Thomas in his many paradoxes - the Christian pacifist who nonetheless supported Welsh Nationalism and the firebombing of English holiday cottages in the 1980s - (what is one death against the death of the whole Welsh nation?) for instance, the man who despite his cut glass Oxford English tones, and the private English education he gave his son, only stopped `going West' in his quest for Welshness when he met the sea at Aberdaron in 1967, `thinking, to use his own image, to kiss the feet of the Welsh rainbow'.
Despite the paradoxes, and Thomas himself was well aware of them, he was a poet of immense, sometimes breathtaking talent, and in this delightful and very `human' biography, Byron Rogers brings us to a far greater understanding of the man and his passions. To read it is to be suffused with a sudden and urgent desire to revisit and reassess the work of this `barmy old coot'.
Zoe King - Cadenza magazine
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By H. O. Zogott
Format:Hardcover
This is a truly wonderful, readable book that is as well written as R. S. Thomas' poems are. What is most astonishing is the fairness that Byron Rogers brings to it. Unsparing in its portrayal, this portrait of a tortured man touched by genius makes clear the excessive (perhaps abnormal) sensitivity to the world he observed and lived in (made manifest in the poems) as well as the shy, sometimes kind, occasionally generous man and priest. An ogre, no matter how blameworthy, could not write the poems Thomas did. For corroborating evidence, please listen closely and carefully to the CDs of R.S. Thomas reading his poems recorded the year before he died. Then go back to the poems and read them for their clarity, integrity and compassion.
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A completely readable and compassionate biography of a man many found impossible, unfathomable or both. Rogers had the great benefit of access not only to Thomas' family, but had been meeting the poet over a period of many years. Some comment not altogether favourably on the amount of personal reminiscence in the writing, but to this reader it was entirely justified by the light it throws on the subject. I have been an avid reader of R.S.T's poetry for many years; this book illuminates them with a new light.
And it's great to realise the sense of humour lurking behind that familiar, craggy face!
And it's great to realise the sense of humour lurking behind that familiar, craggy face!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fresh approach to biography
If only more biographers could put the story together like this. Rogers life has structure but at no time do you find yourself wondering how long its going to take to get to the... Read more
Published 5 days ago by JCT
3.0 out of 5 stars
An irrational account of an irrational man
This account of the life of R.S. Thomas is not an easy read. I do not expect a biography to be a seamless narrative, but this is disjointed at best, descending often into chaos. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Val
2.0 out of 5 stars
Review of "The Man who went into the West"
I just found it boring. Perhaps it's not really my thing. I did not find the character RS Thomas at all attractive.
Published 2 months ago by J. Holmes
4.0 out of 5 stars
bio of fine Welsh poet
It was a gift but I read a fair amount myself and very much enjoyed it. I will probably borrow it from the recipient so that\i can finish it!
Published 4 months ago by Gerald Doody
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
very good pleased ( i will not write words that I do not want to write even to make it 17 words)
Published 5 months ago by G. poa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Genius
A biography of Wales's second greatest poet (after Dylan Thomas), written by the funniest journalist to come out of Wales, this book is a triumph from start to finish. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jon W
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary Work
I know little of poetry; I rarely finish a biography. However, I found this biography of RS Thomas absolutely fascinating. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr T. Hyatt
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry ... but it just didn't do it for me
The biography of a miserable man who treated his children with utter disregard and contempt. Sure, Thomas's poetry is occasionally suffused with touches of undeniable brilliance -... Read more
Published 8 months ago by tendermercies
5.0 out of 5 stars
Can selfishness be excused in parents?
There's no correct answer, of course. In this riveting (valid superlative) biography of Welsh poet R.S. Read more
Published 8 months ago by G. D. Busby
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unputdownable Biography of an Exasperating Man
Probably the most enjoyable and memorable biography I have read in the last 10 years - this is a book which I keep lending to friends and then anxiously awaiting its return. Read more
Published 15 months ago by JUDITH
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