Dylan’s Park

About this book

The young Dylan Thomas loves Swansea, where he lives – a “sea town” – in which there is a park, full of terrors and treasures, where he and his friends play. There are secret societies in the world of the park that the children can belong to, all of which demand perilous feats of endurance or daring (insulting postmen from the top of a tree; ringing all the doorbells in one street and running away; swimming with angry swans). Every day seems like an adventure, full of dragons and cattle ranches, pirate cabins and highwayman’s inns. 

Years later, the boy returns as a young man and asks the park-keeper if he remembers the boy he once was. The park keeper reflects that he thinks that young boy was happy all the time – and we can see from Dylan’s memories that he was. 

Dylan Thomas is one of Wales’s best-loved poets. As a boy, he spent many happy hours playing in Cwmdonkin Park in Swansea, which he wrote about in a radio broadcast. This picture book is inspired by a part of that broadcast as well as featuring text from some of Dylan Thomas’s other works. Illustrated by Thomas Docherty, this is a beautifully illuminated and nostalgic memory of what childhood once was, and the playful and innocent quality that it still has.

About the author