posted on 27 Mar 2025

A Visit to Grandpa’s and other stories by Dylan Thomas, illustrated by Robin Jacques

I always think it’s a shame that the short stories Dylan Thomas wrote are so often eclipsed by his dazzling poetry – for most people Thomas is the famously hell-raising Welsh bard whose fire was extinguished tragically-early by drink. I’ve written elsewhere on this site about the spell that Thomas’ poetry cast on me as a younger man and I still turn to it on a regular basis. But to miss out on his prose writing is to forego a significant pleasure and this collection, originally published in 1984 and illustrated by the excellent Robin Jacques, has given me a chance to revisit some of his short stories.

The eight selected for inclusion here are all in Thomas’ trademark style – a heady almost drunken love of language and the music of words, their ability to paint pictures and to conjure a sort of magic, nostalgic, even romantic, childhood. The boys at the heart of the stories are, I suspect, the boys Thomas would like to have been and, to some extent, may have been. They are populated with people you wouldn’t be surprised to encounter in the Boys Weeklies of post-war Britain and there’s more than a hint of a Welsh Just William in the personas the poet creates. Take for example the story entitled ‘The Fight’ which starts off with two boys getting into a rough and tumble for very little reason and, as a result, becoming the firmest of friends.

But Thomas is a much better writer than Richmal Compton and the poet’s eye for detail and his ability to winkle out universal truths enables him to transcend the ordinary. These boys have dens and continue to scuffle and jostle each other despite their friendship – it’s part of their maleness – but they are much more than that: one a musician and the other a poet, sharing their art.

And if you want a brilliant example of how words can paint pictures, try Holiday Memory:

“August Bank Holiday. A tune on an ice-cream cornet. A slap of sea and a tickle of sand. A fanfare of sunshades opening. A wince and a whinny of bathers dancing into deceptive water. A tuck of dresses. A rolling of trousers. A compromise of paddlers. A sunburn of girls and a lark of boys. A silent hullabaloo of balloons.”

What a great opening!

But it would be possible to pluck so many of these joyful word pictures from any of the stories and they are a constant joy to read and reread because it’s always possible to spot something new, something to make you smile time and again.

To be honest, I might not have been moved to write a review of the book if it wasn’t for the presence of Robin Jacques’ wonderful illustrations that add an extra dimension to the stories. The jacket has a captivating full colour illustration but inside the full and double-page drawings are pen and ink, black and white – spare and clean, sharply defined and with a superb sense of time, place and subject.

Amazingly, on the second hand market, copies of this hardback can be found for well under £10 – which I can only call an bargain that you’d be crazy to pass on.

 

Terry Potter

March 2025