Literary Passion · Swansea, Swansea
5 Cwmdonkin Drive (Dylan Thomas's birthplace)
The steep Uplands semi where Dylan Thomas wrote two-thirds of his poems in a bedroom the size of a confession box — the sensuous, rolling voice of 'the force that through the green fuse drives the flower' formed here before London, Caitlin and the Boathouse. Pair with Laugharne for the marriage.
Sources
Nearby on the map
The cliff-side home of Dylan and Caitlin Thomas, whose passionate, tempestuous, hard-drinking marriage was as famous as his verse; the writing shed overlooking the estuary is preserved as if he had just stepped out.
Documented historyScandal & SocietyTiger Bay (Cardiff's dockland demi-monde)Cardiff, Cardiff · WalesCardiff's legendary dockland — one of Britain's first truly multicultural quarters, notorious in its coal-boom heyday for sailors' taverns, dance halls and commercial affection, and beloved by those who lived there as a warm, tight community the papers never bothered to understand. Shirley Bassey is its most famous daughter.
Documented historyHot spotFolk Rite & FertilityKilpeck Church sheela-na-gigKilpeck, Herefordshire · EnglandEngland's most famous sheela-na-gig — a grinning female figure frankly displaying her vulva — carved on the corbel of a perfect Norman church. Warning against lust, fertility charm, or apotropaic guardian? Scholars still argue; the carving outlasts every theory.
Documented + folkloreSpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.