Portraits of Famous Welsh Writers: Dylan Thomas

The art historian, Peter Lord, refers to the custom among the Victorian and Edwardian Welsh of decorating their homes with portraits of the hoelion mawr: literally, the ‘big nails’ of the Nonconformist movement whose preaching had earned them a kind of celebrity status. This series considers seminal portraits and photographs of some of the greatest Welsh writers of the Twentieth Century.

Taken at the Poetry Center, New York, during his penultimate tour of America, and shortly before his tragic death, this shot captures the drama of a live performance of Under Milk Wood, with the poet himself playing the rôle of narrator.

Surgical Maggott, Lucilia sericata by Volker Steger | Image Source

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Books by Rob Mimpriss

Dangerous Asylums

‘In this exemplary collaboration between medical science and imagination, lives preserved in official records, in the language and diagnoses of their times, are restored not just to light, but to humanity and equality. This anthology is a resurrection.’

Philip Gross