4th April, 2013

R.S. Thomas 2013

Remembering R.S. Thomas (1913-2000)
Celebrate R.S. Thomas’s centenary with this excellent volume that draws together 52 poems (4 previously unpublished) by Thomas to his wife, the distinguished artist Mildred E  Eldridge – known as Elsi – from early meditations on their relationship to the elegies following her death.
This collection is edited by Damian Walford Davies. The foreword is by DR. Rowan Williams

This revelatory collection dramatises the changing dynamics of a complex and vitally creative relationship. Poems on marriage, cohabitation, birthdays, anniversaries, family and bereavement offer a candid portrait of emotional intimacy, desire, the painful process of ageing, and of loss. Elsi is a complex presence here: to the ‘to’ in the title signifies not only ‘addressed to’ but also ‘about’, ‘with an eye on’, ‘to be overheard by’, and even in one case ‘from’.

Born in Cardiff on the 29th March 1913, this year will mark the 100th birthday of R.S.Thomas. Thomas and Elsi were married in 1940 and remained together until her death in 1991. Their son, Gwydion, was born 29 August 1945.
Pre-order a copy of R.S.Thomas: Poems to Elsi now at £9.99 or £7.99 (if bookclub member)