happiness
THE CHINA MAIL,
SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1956.
Cwmdonkin Spelt Magic for
Boy
the
Dylan's
own
hered snake in th
A must keep off,
childhood prensions
Dylan
this
Iow have writers ever CAM- veyed.
For
ward leaves Cellar really
Typical of the Thomas knew at Laugharne is
picture, taken some years ago.
RS Florence
202 20
M
STRON
ono
Still, the notices warned, boys must keep off it; but gone, alos! were Smoky and the hunchback and the boy with the golden curla.
17-
+++++++ JOHN
Dylan
them, compiling his own dic-
MARSHALL++++++++ Homary of his favourites, listed
retraces the boyhood of Dylan Thomas, the poet whose life provides one of the most fas. cinating stories of our time
Yet what a tremendous Auence bad that agrecably duli quck- ille provinciaj-su..urban park giance upon that boy who was destined You for fame and notariaty, adula- you them, the clacking longues
know scandal,
im- and perhaps "*121 ugly-lovely mortality. Lewn," Cwmdonkli Drive. Fran the Ume Dylen could he later becaure editor. Juventie,
of twinkle
that but with a talk his father began to incul-
humour mocking the geily in him cate
h love of English
And
when always acute observation which language.
was the he was not rampaging through were sp characteristic,
edition Cwindenkin Park or upon
In Christmas the poem seasture Dylan would sit in hs when he was 13: own room in his parents' neal, double-fronted house qua a steep slope leading to the distant bay. writing very small, with many a fresh start, in an exercise book, the first few immature verses of the poolry which was to be his real life.
Han Swanses, Thoma, mother of Dylan Thomas, shares the house with a friend, each having their separate quarters, and she speaks naturally, without reserve, of the family she had lost.
Fo her the year which ended with Dylan's douth was a hard une to bear In the previous December her husband "Daddy" she ofiil culls Juan died in Laugharne where they ako then hvert, and 13ylin was beside him A few months later Nancy, then only daughter and older than Dylan, died
India
Stilet
resent-
Mix Tamu
Thanus "Granny" 10 Catim and the three children of Chit- in and Dylan Llewellyn, now 15; Acron. the only daughter, pine, and i dan, sex, all of whom bear as
unmistakable blance to the young Dylan.
She has about her pletures of all the factualy Two bookcases are stacked high, mostly pr- first war exitions of the classic. expermily poetry Keats,
ley, Byron, Browning, all
Ch
Shel-
David Thus, Dyland's father. penior English muster at Swab-
sea Grammar School. WAS
lover of poetry who strove
in
his younger days to write it and
was not easily reconciled to his lack of success.
"The worst'
THEY'RE ail Buddy's books,"
"THEY'RE
sat Mrs Thoma
The
jet we
sort by
Are A
bes daughter-in-law. Ca.thn, drink- ing tea and cating Weish cakes old from one of those phump flowered biscuit uns I well re- member from my ww
chilet-
1
rump- where Dylan was born, ed, and went at his mother's stories, and Cwmdonkin Park,
his world within which was world, the park "full of terrors and treasures," jungles. hidden homes and airs, cowboys Hindaun, The park that grew with him. inspiring poem which
his has become one of best knowtr
C
'Twas the and
แม
The Hunchback in the park. A solitary mister
frees and Propped beftaveen
Peter
From the
TJ
the
OpenN durde tock That lets the irers and waters
engl
ut
1
יו
Loved sport
11 Dylan
the wen: to
He Was grammar school, not by any means a model yupit and was andillerent, if not weak, but English. In every subject But he learned to love cricket. ran well in the school sports, and took an active part in such school activities as the debating around me
rending upd of a small
groups and the
FILMA-
Until the Sunday sombre bell
dark.
windoitan Park the other day, perhaps on the very sat seat where the hunchback "eating bread from hus paper." und looked at the only work boy with a great heap of golden curls and wide, ainber eyes, the world where an ancient kroper known as Smoky was the whis
dramatic society.
And, of magazlık“,
the school Course. From the star! With 11 regular contributor
und
season
nut Xmas vac.
First din star in the twilight
ILOUT.
Drenchtops sweet of the hato-
thom flower, Wallflowers klased by a liver
shower,
And the clear blue sky
above!
A wistful song as the shadows
Jati, The whisper of irces and
soft bird-call,
concert
of before
the
prizes are
When the heat and all the
masters pat each other the back. When
and parents
UKL
distributed
71
glimmering
to hear
over all
How many Johny hadn't pot
4/1 rücking
yeat.
a
moon and
The tang of a what from
the sea!
the
At
17
1927.
And the same year. while he was stili at the bottom of Form III. the sensitive, in- agimulive boy his mother thinks of now expressed himself in this pem, called "Best of All": CcTosk tus-red bannera
dawn,
Roving reporter RENE MacCOLL
of foreign reporting for these
'OFF
THE
1. How Truman fired Wallace...and what
Wallace told me
Brown satis at sea on a misty
norn, Racing
CUTR
shadows
ATIONA
These are the things
love.
Dylan Swansea Evening Post.
Thomas tackled reporter
bis en Job without the slightest thusiasm. He longed to be free to
upon his poetry Concentrate and to bestow his gifts upon wider world.
of pollee During an inquest court case he would doodle and then doze, waking suddenly the jot down a word on a bit
paper or cardboard.
Loved / the
1121 extent
alphabetically. He would consult this lexicon for the right words to fill the gaps in lines awaiting completion in an exercise book
abelled "Poines."
months be For about 18 doodled and dawdied, the ever- indiferent reporter, and in that period one significant thing hap- pened he acquired a liking for pubs and for beer.
There are some who are in- a member clined to condemin
for of the staff senior to hin
development - Freddie Forr, poilce and boxing porter.
this
re-
If I hadn't been Freddie it would have been someone else, his natural the pub was background, the sounding board for his wit, the setting for his clowning, his pyrotechnic
the place to meet provisation, people and to talk and listen at which was one the same time,
remarkable of Dylan's calents.
many
Sudden word
-
When friends meet
Before lunch.... si the cocktail hour or at any other time when a few friends get together over a drink, the call is for Gordon's. Its subtle, distinctive flavour has made it Best choice with men and women all over the world who can appreciate the best gin. Wah long drinks or short, wherever friends forgather, Gordon's In the gin
ASK FOR IT BY NAME
LOND
Gordon's Stands Supreme
IMPORTED
FROM
LONDON.
INGLAND
Bole Distributes : DODWELL. & COMPANY LIMITED.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
jolned the
Junior
Im-
he
the
A
werd
Drat
words he
such 10 collected
of u dazzling Chinesa Creeds & Customs Vol. 1 IN the middle
discourse on Hardy, an
Chinoso Creads & Customs Vaf. I of war passioned denunciation or a wickedly witty story, would drag cigarette packed
off from his pocket, tear end, write a word or perhaps a piece to sentence, and thrust the of into another pocket.
which had flashed into his mind, a word which had perhaps, or jostled its way through the to- bacco haze from some unknown source at the other end of the bar.
$18.00
18.00
Enjoyable Cookery
15.00
Baby Book
25.00
This is Hong Kong
8.50
The Hongkong Countryside (Herklots) Hongkong Birds (Herklots Coronation Glory
25.00
35.00
7.50
King George VI
7.50
It's Fun Finding Out — 2nd series
(Bernard Wicksteed)
5.00
4.00
1.00
15.00
3.00
1.50
1.50
.30
.30
30
draws on 20 years' experience 'inside' stories never-before-told
RECORD!'
2. How Strachey let bread rationing slip out of the bag'
OFF-BEAT stories of hou hysterend audience. THERE is always the
hood. "I have some of Dylan's the great events of
books somewhere" No far from her bedsite, I imaginext.
A hely Le Welsh woman. white-ha,red na w with Barn intelligent
eve
Jama !
י!
the last 20 years. Rene MacColl is able to draw on his own
spectacles, trai nera aftes experiences
breaking a Frie Almost that
book her ware look un an un-
skaupren pOUROJENO
"I he had been
The mon
the
World!
Worsi ilshoteld never have appeared now," she Bald. For her, at was clear, he was the best. not the worst. Dyles,
hd IL deep affection for his mother. "She he said is a aweet woman,"
simply to his friends.
LTHOUGH the rule that has got to be kept is the one about not breaking confidences, the temptation to do so is always lurking about.
One of the biggest tempia tions along this line which 1 ever
hud took place
It was Dyinn new 25 attle Washington.
all
boy she
secing, as WAS mothers do in their lonely latter years. And it was of these days she wanted to speak. He was
not a strong child, rather chesty, which doubt was why he was rejected for military service
awful the war and had that cough.
in
largely comprised of fellow-
travellers, it nothing worse, he time
launched a smashing attack on
war
15 4
had Strachey
given
aboul the pretty good story in the most things he was planning to buy trom the Americans to vary the
on the
America's Inst. foreign uneventful of days dreary British diet. policy -ant nude Worse by adding that he hact
President, talked to the
Approved.
me when the unexpected point of breaking up. and one
a
and who happens
reporter finds himself with next day's front on drastic page in his pocket..
BRITAIN 'THE VILLAIN' THUMAN decided
action.
by telephone.
He fired Walinco
The conference was
were already or two hands surreptitiously reaching towards Wils Mr Strachey bats, when seen to be waving some sort of Since 11 card above his head.
SOTI of looked an anonymous
the document, some of us gol
that Mr Strochey impression
I can possibly help it, was light-heartedly waving
1 will never allow an good-bye--but such was not the individual to tell me case.
at
"Look
this!" he cried. We at this!" "Have a look crowded round him and peered at the unfamiliar object. "Well, what is 17"
Wallace bade his staff fure well, cleared out his desk at the
and alone anything in confidence. Department Commerce
without making any If he asks whether he can vanished, further statement.
Wallace had left his Madison speak confidentially, I assure Square Garden hearers with the him that anything he cares
that impression
be regarded to say may appear in print. f the it is astonishing how many Britain as the villain
Il concerned a story which plece. A Wallace interview at people, with that warning. was front-page news both this point would be wonderful in England and America- on all counts.
the sacking of
in
Wallace.
THE
OF RUSSIA
FRIEND
"He was a very sensitive boy."
said his mother. "I remember
when he was about five I would W
I
was looking, of course, but I
icnew when he was crying. very imaginative boy,
Or thot there can be doubt. Those who heard, have read,
A
no or
1043 and repeated ten years later, will have an insight into
Henry
then decide to go ahead.
· In general, "off-the- I went to work, and started
record" conferences make trying wic of the drudgery phonically to track down a man me uneasy, and I wish they who didn't want to be tracked did not exist. They are often down, by way of officials who given, of course, from the didn'i want to help to track best of motives; sometimes
It took two days. ex him down. для
from motives not so pure.
PART OF THE ROUTINE
elections had tried to keep that offion.
it
especially
asked.
"Bread - rationing declared the Minister.
bo
someone
coupons!"
general
to
The American reporters look- ed mildly surprised but the effect on the British was terifle. Nobody, I believe, had for one moment thought that, however wretched
food the situation might be at home, i would ever ration bread.
"Yes, it is definitely going to be rationed," went on Strachey, then added, apparently afterthought, "Subject, natural- ly, to Cabinet approval."
The Cabinet hadn't Hullo!
the as a fact abroad,
necessary
I WONDER WHY
as
WALLACE had had
cellent political сагест Nothing further from Wallace read stories to him, and if there including eight years ns Roose had appeared anywhere. No was anything about hospitals in velt's Secretary of Agriculure. them he would cry, Not if He had then been Vice-President one had been able to "reach"
It was the right one.
announced in the U.S., the chance of a approved this big step yet; but of the USA. during Roosevelt's number I tried one more THERE is always, third term, and in the 1944 number,
After some hesitation, he "leak." But, again especially there it was being
Interesting! I cut there, in
U.S.. the
there in really got going.
someone asked the Had he been successful, his drinking it in and getting it technique of the off-the-recced Casually,
down just as fast as I could conference which is deliberately Minister whether there was to "Reminiscences of tory would undoubtedly
have scribble,
designed to "leak," as the best be simultaneous announcement for In been quite different,
facts of It in London. No, no, said he Childhood," first broadcast
It was even more controver way of making public would have meant that Wallace, stal than the speech had been. without pinning the authorship emphatically.
and not the friend of Hussin,
Ha kept repeating a phrase, on anyone too directly. In fact, to "When Truman, would have gone
3 read about our "leaking a story" is nowadays the White House on Roosevelt's American aircraft flying
TUIAT do it. We availed dooth in April 1945.
ot Mediterranean; the
our for high Washington officials
out to the taxis and broke Wallace
In carriera had
the to content him- American
In that spring of 1946 the self
being
of under Truman, Eastern Mediterranean, threat- stream high-level with
British for our offices, with next day's Secretary of Commerce.
ening Russia, it makes mo sick, visitor to Washington entailed front pages in our pockets,
I have often wondered why unisuni In September 1940
A good many Wallace I tell you. I feel sick-SICK!" Truman in the went to seC
and we British correspondents Mr Strachey took the White House, and mentioned
'PROMISE
used occasionally to welthe at course that he did; and whether ME' that he proposed to make a big
the combination of Ineptitude it was a premeditated plan
done on impulse. spooch in Madison Square
and anugees on display.
To jump the gun on a Cabinet I can recall tow Garden, New York, the next TN my mind's cyo I could sco
which decision was obviously not dono have evening. He enld that the gist the headlines-could seo my ferences with Socialism
overy day; and he must of what he planned to say was story came bouncing back across were successes.
been certain of his ground on that Americana should look at the Atlantic, to be picked
provided that score. the work through American and ra-run in the US. Press.
been uniquely embarrassing occasion, Conceivably ho hach eyes, "and not through the eyes
for the visitor, a lady, proved so
POCKET CARTOON by OSDERT LANCASTER
up
Just
One,
Press conferences,
indoed
Press con
normal rush of business, hed must ask you to promise no time to read the advance not to us what I have told you. asking her a single question. boxt of Wallace's speech.
This has been off-the-record.
↑
of a pro-British or rabidly nut- But it was not to be. Russian Press."
ns I was about ready to hang dreary, in her opening and long- given definite orders by Mr And the winded statement that the no- Attlee to spring the story while
ho was in America. without Trumon, pushed with his up and get busy, ho said: "I porters Uptood away
mo
reason for that would probably as drama- ba to bring home REMEMBER
lically as possible to the Ameri- BUT
cons the direness of the British NE of the most electrifying plight.
momonta I hove
Anyway? it made a fine Press olherwise conferetice, porlenced at
Next day the White House Is that understood?"
correspondents asked' Truman
"Off-the-record?" I repentox?
at his Press conference if to miserably. approved the Wallace speech.
Truman, off-the-cuff, said yes.
Of course, we all took it to
moan that he had actually rend
tt.
Wallace took the ild off in Madison Square Garden that
"Yes, all of it. May I have
your tourance on that?"
"If you insist," I said. **I'm afraid I do," he mid "Well, good-bye.”
"Good-bye, Mr Wallaco," And that was that,
miil Press
what
Conforetico-
looked like being a run-of-the(COPYRIGHT, EXTRACTS that held by Mr John Strachey, PROM M&COLL'S FORTII- then Food Minister in the Bo
COMING BOOK DEAD.
cialist Government, in Wash-LINE AND DATELINE” – ington in June 1946,
MORE NEET SATURDAY).
This note-making did not dam the spate for a moment; Dylan
the
went right on talking, a glass or
An
hand. a tankard
one
011 cigarette Jigging
Rupert Adventure Book Ruport Magazines Weights & Measurements Stamp Albums
his Ten Points About Poarls seized words, lip. But those
Points on Judging Jade upou in this remarkable fashion. Outline Relief Map of China
have gone to the making of the obscure Thomas poems which
a lovely or not obscure, have pattern and the sound of music, (COPYRIGHT)
Next Saturday: "Threat of the Clutched Tankard."
*
Asia
S.E. Asia
On Sale At
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD.
HONGKONG
INDIA
KOWLOON
ONLY BOAC OFFERS SIX SERVICES WEEKLY
ROUTES TO CALCUTTA, BOMBAY OR DELHI
Now Slumberettan for avary
"Majestic" passenger.
and a choice of luxury "all- Slumberette" Majestic—or low-fare Coronet tourist services! Excellent
meals and drinks
and personal
service all the way!
Consult your Travel Agent, or jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd.; Telephone 6331 (24 Hour Service)
All over the world
B.O·A·C
TAKES GOOD CARE OF YOU
BRITISH - OVERSEAS AIRWAYS CORPORATION
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.