Dylan Thomas' reading on this recording elevated A Child's Christmas in Wales from casually dismissed prose, written by a poet to keep the wolf from the door, to new genre, of literature to be performed.
The BBC archives hold a wealth of material featuring Dylan Thomas and these recordings contain not only readings of his own work, but also dramatic renditions of others, such as Doctor Faustus . Together with interviews with the poet, they form a fascinating audio portrait.
A selection of poems by various poets, including W.B Yeats, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and D.H. Lawrence. There are also readings especially devoted to John Milton's 'Comus' and 'Paradise Lost' with Dylan Thomas as Satan.
Dylan Thomas tells stories of his childhood in Wales, piling on the sights and smells and sounds experienced by one rough-and-tumble Welsh lad with a miraculous sense of wonder.