' ... though I sang in my chains like the sea'.

David Irwin.


Hard to imagine how it could be any better!   January 6, 2004
 7 out of 7 found this review helpful

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.


In the greystained Soho streets ...,   December 17, 2003
 3 out of 11 found this review helpful

I plummetted and twirled, as ever green about the face amidst the red roaring girls and ranting poetical boys.
I heard tell of Lycett's book from one Dilys Pendragon, behind The Black Stoat, off Wardour Steet. I determined to read it, much to my delight, it being as careful and sweet a thing to peruse as ever accompanied me homewards, in these giddy, golden days, other than the Protheroe girl, last night.

David Irwin.