Dylan's Park

The Dylan of this story is Dylan Thomas, and the park is Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea, well known both to the poet and the husband and wife team who are creators of this joyful and inspiring picture book. Using Dylan Thomas’ own words, from two radio broadcasts and from his poem Should Lanterns Shine, Helen Docherty describes his childhood adventures in the park, introducing readers to a world of imagination and play, where a small park extends to embrace ‘caverns and forests, prairies and deserts’ and ‘as many secret places … as a country somewhere at the end of the sea.’ It’s universal, in that every child will recognise those imaginary adventures, though they’ll envy Thomas his freedom to stay out all day, or roast potatoes in a camp fire, and be thrilled by the feats of daring and endurance that bring membership of the children’s secret societies. It’s also wonderfully particular to Dylan Thomas, as we can hear his voice throughout, the marvellous rhythm and syntax of his poetry. The illustrations show Thomas with young friends, a curly mop of hair to mark him out, and fill the park with a set of the characters he remembered from his childhood, nursemaids, gardeners, old men, an old lady in a bath chair with six Pekinese and a pale girl to read aloud to her, and the park keeper who remembers him as ‘happy all the time.’ Somehow, they make it even more magical and more real. The book works as an accessible and tempting introduction to Dylan Thomas, and as a celebration of the limitless joy of outdoor play. A book to treasure.