Literary walks from Thomas, Tolkien and Christie
Where in Wales inspired the ‘dewgrazed’ town of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood? You decide...
TWO SCENIC WELSH towns are locked in friendly rivalry over Under Milk Wood, the ‘play for voices’, later published as a book, by the nation’s most famous poet. Is Llareggub (read it backwards!) based on New Quay, by the sea on Cardigan Bay? Or on Laugharne in Carmarthenshire, clinging to the sandy edge of the Taf estuary?
Thomas once drew a map of Llareggub, now in the National Library of Wales (see it online), and many think its ‘top’ and ‘sea-end’ most closely match New Quay’s topography, and that its harbour lined with pastel-painted terraces is clearly the home of Captain Cat, Dai Bread, Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard and Evans the Death. The Wales Coast Path climbs steeply south of town and you can follow it to one of Thomas’ favourite pubs, the Pentre Inn at Llangrannog, where his infamous drinking got him thrown out when he decided to serve himself a pint.
On the other hand, Thomas said his inspiration came from the ‘timeless, beautiful, barmy (both spellings) town’ 40 miles away in Carmarthenshire: ‘A radio play I am writing has Laugharne, though not by name, as its setting.’ Over the years, he and his family lived in three different houses in the town, most famously at the Boathouse on a ‘breakneck of rocks’, so close to the estuary the high-tide Taf laps at the foundations. His ‘word-splashed’ writing hut – still strewn with screwed up paper and beer bottles – sits on stilts just along the way and his portrait now graces the sign of Brown’s Hotel, where he went each day for ‘a moulder’. Sir John’s Hill lifts in green curves to the south of town, perhaps the inspiration for Llareggub Hill (and definitely the focus of his Poem in October).
Thomas worked on Under Milk Wood for over a decade – both in New Quay and Laugharne – and at least twice he lost (and recovered) his only copy of the manuscript in its ‘battered strapless briefcase’. In 1953, he had to be locked in a room to finish it, on tour in America where audiences had already bought tickets for the show. ‘The curtain was going to rise at 8:40. Well, at 8:10 Dylan was locked in the backroom… And no end to Under Milk Wood.’ Thomas further revised his play after that performance, delivering a script to the BBC just weeks before he collapsed and died in New York, aged only 39.
Thomas’ body was brought back to Laugharne and buried at St Michael’s Church, where a simple white cross marks his grave, and that of his wife Caitlin. The mellifluous tones of
another great Welsh man, Richard Burton, most famously brought his play to life: have a listen as you walk at Laugharne and New Quay, and decide which you think best conjures ‘the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboat-bobbing sea’.
WALK HERE: Download routes at New Quay and Laugharne from walk1000miles.co.uk/bonusroutes; walking both makes for a gorgeous Milk Wood themed weekend.