I like to be generous, and I often hand out four or five stars: this book is one that makes me wish that I was more parsimonious. Were I so to be, the five stars that head this review would be more convincing. This is, undoubtedly, one of the best books that I have read this year.

Dylan Thomas is a subject about whom we all feel that we know the story: he was an objectionable drunk who turned out occasionally brilliant poetry. It would have been easy to produce a book that confirms this view and much more difficult to argue that this was, at least in part, an act. Thomas was a leach, who begged loans (never to be repaid) from friends, and particularly friends' wives and yet, racked with guilt at his own inability to earn, or perhaps to hold onto, money long enough to provide for his family. After a precociously early spell of writing great poems, Thomas seems always to fear that he has lost the gift and indeed, there are large tracts in which nothing of significance is created. He is somewhere between a hypochondriac, a chronically unfit individual and a sick man who craves sympathy, particularly from ladies but, for all this, his last work, finished just before his death, was 'Under Milk Wood'.

Thomas' death has, perhaps inevitably, become embroiled in conspiracy theory. Thomas died whilst touring America and there is a famous quote suggesting that he had been upon a binge, drinking eighteen straight whiskies. Another view is that the doctor called to treat him gave him too much morphia and staged a cover up. Even the 'sensible' view is that Thomas died of alcoholism. Ferris covers all these views but does not push any. He sets out the pros and cons of each and leaves the reader to decide.

In addition to being an excellent biography, this book also gives an insight into Thomas' mind set at the time at which he wrote all his major works. His poetry should, and of course does, stand alone but, it never hurts to have some background. As with the biographical detail, Ferris is not prescriptive; he sets out the facts and leaves the suppositions to his audience.

I cannot speak too highly of this book: it is a first rate story of a sad man. ( )

Biography

Thomas, Dylan, 1914-1953/Poets, Welsh > 20th century > Biography