The “lovely, ugly town “of Swansea is the birthplace of Dylan Marlais Thomas, one of the most famous poets writing in the English language
in the Western World during the twentieth century. Whilst he was loved for his poetry, many of those that came into contact with him disliked his behaviour, which fuelled his image as a bad boy. Together with his propensity for drinking, it all adds up to an image of a poet that many romanticise about.Perhaps he was the first and only superstar poet of our age.

Dylan (as everyone seems to know him) was born in Swansea on 27 October 1914, and lived at 5, Cwmdonkin Drive, Uplands, until he was twenty. During this period he wrote approximately two thirds of all his poetry together with many of his short stories and copious letters. He died on November 9, 1953 in St Vincent’s Hospital, New York after a monumental drinking binge. His wife, Caitlin, travelled with the embalmed body in a coffin back to Britain and on the voyage she is reported to have seen sailors playing cards on the coffin – which all adds to the myth.

Swansea moved Dylan to write some of his most famous work, such as the poem ‘The Hunchback in the Park’

“The hunchback in the park
A solitary mister
Propped between trees and water
From the opening of the garden lock
That lets the trees and water enter
Until the Sunday sombre bell at dark.”