Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

===Broadcasting years 1945–1949===
[[File:Dylan Boathouse.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dylan Thomas Boathouse|The Boat House]], Laugharne, the Thomas family home from 1949]]
Although Thomas had previously written for the BBC, it was a minor and intermittent source of income. In 1943, he wrote and recorded a 15-minute talk titled "Reminiscences of Childhood" for the Welsh BBC. In December 1944, he recorded ''Quite Early One Morning'' (produced by [[Aneirin Talfan Davies]], again for the Welsh BBC) but when Davies offered it for national broadcast BBC London turned it down.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=213}} On 31 August 1945, the [[BBC Home Service]] broadcast ''Quite Early One Morning'' and, in the three years beginning in October 1945, Thomas made over a hundred broadcasts for the corporation.{{sfnp|Read|1964|p=115}} Thomas was employed not only for his poetry readings, but for discussions and critiques.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dylanthomas.com/dylan/dylans-work/dylan-thomas-broadcasts/|title=Dylan Thomas&nbsp;– The Broadcasts|publisher=dylanthomas.com|access-date=22 July 2014}}</ref>{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|pp=395–399}}

In the second half of 1945, Thomas began reading for the BBC Radio programme, ''Book of Verse'', broadcast weekly to the Far East.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=218}} This provided Thomas with a regular income and brought him into contact with [[Louis MacNeice]], a congenial drinking companion whose advice Thomas cherished.{{sfnp|Read|1964|p=116}} On 29 September 1946, the BBC began transmitting the [[BBC Third Programme|Third Programme]], a high-culture network which provided opportunities for Thomas.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|pp=219–220}} He appeared in the play ''Comus'' for the Third Programme, the day after the network launched, and his rich, sonorous voice led to character parts, including the lead in Aeschylus's ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'' and Satan in an adaptation of ''[[Paradise Lost]]''.{{sfnp|Read|1964|p=116}}{{sfnp|FitzGibbon|1965|pp=396–397}} Thomas remained a popular guest on radio talk shows for the BBC, who regarded him as "useful should a younger generation poet be needed".{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=219}} He had an uneasy relationship with BBC management and a staff job was never an option, with drinking cited as the problem.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=221}} Despite this, Thomas became a familiar radio voice and within Britain was "in every sense a celebrity".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.questia.com/library/1G1-18167167/the-ambiguous-reversal-of-dylan-thomas-s-in-country|title=The Ambiguous Reversal of Dylan Thomas's "In Country Sleep."|first1=James J.|last1=Balakier|year=1996|journal=Papers on Language & Literature|volume=32|issue=1|pages=21|access-date=26 August 2017|archive-date=26 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130626231832/http://www.questia.com/library/1G1-18167167/the-ambiguous-reversal-of-dylan-thomas-s-in-country|url-status=dead}}</ref>

{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| header = {{center|Dylan Thomas's writing shed}}
| header_align = center
| header_background = 
| footer = 
| footer_align = left
| footer_background = 
| width = 
| image1 = Wales Laugharne Dylans writing hut.jpg
| width1 = 162
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = 
| image2 = Dylan Thomas's shed - geograph.org.uk - 15855.jpg
| width2 = 190
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = 
}}
By late September 1945, the Thomases had left Wales and were living with various friends in London.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=216}} In December, they moved to Oxford to live in a summerhouse on the banks of the Cherwell. It belonged to the historian, [[A. J. P. Taylor]]. His wife, Margaret, would prove to be Thomas's most committed patron.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=208}}

The publication of ''[[Deaths and Entrances]]'' in February 1946 was a major turning point for Thomas. Poet and critic [[Walter J. Turner]] commented in ''[[The Spectator]]'', "This book alone, in my opinion, ranks him as a major poet".<ref>{{cite book|first1=W. J. |last1=Turner |publisher=[[The Spectator]]| title=The Spectator| volume=176 |year=1946}}</ref>

====Italy, South Leigh and Prague...====
The following year, in April 1947, the Thomases travelled to Italy, after Thomas had been awarded a [[Society of Authors]] scholarship. They stayed first in villas near [[Rapallo]] and then [[Florence]], before moving to a hotel in [[Rio Marina]] on the island of [[Elba]].<ref>For interviews with those writers who knew Thomas in Italy, see Thomas, D, N. (2004), pp. 104–124.</ref> On their return, Thomas and family moved, in September 1947, into the Manor House in [[South Leigh]], just west of Oxford, found for him by Margaret Taylor. He continued with his work for the BBC, completed a number of film scripts and worked further on his ideas for ''Under Milk Wood'',<ref>{{cite web| url = https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandsouthleigh/home| title = Dylan Thomas and South Leigh}}</ref> including a discussion in late 1947 of ''The Village of the Mad'' (as the play was then called) with the BBC producer [[Philip Burton (theatre director)|Philip Burton]]. He later recalled that, during the meeting, Thomas had discussed his ideas for having a blind narrator, an organist who played for a dog and two lovers who wrote to each other every day but never met.<ref>(1) Burton, P. (1953), untitled, ''Dylan Thomas Memorial Number'' in ''Adam International Review''. (2) Tape recorded interview in the Jeff Towns Collection. (3) Letters to Douglas Cleverdon, 9 October 1967 and 26 February 1968, in the Cleverdon archive, Lilly Library, University of Indiana, and reproduced at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandnewquay/under-milk-wood-a-play-for-ears?authuser=0 Burton and Thomas]</ref>

In March 1949 Thomas travelled to [[Prague]]. He had been invited by the [[Government structure of Communist Czechoslovakia|Czech government]] to attend the inauguration of the Czechoslovak Writers' Union. [[Jiřina Hauková]], who had previously published translations of some of Thomas's poems, was his guide and interpreter.{{refn |On her translations, see {{harvp|Thomas|2004|pp=154–172}}.|group="nb"}} In her memoir, Hauková recalls that at a party in Prague, Thomas "narrated the first version of his radio play ''Under Milk Wood''." She describes how he outlined the plot about a town that was declared insane, mentioning the organist who played for sheep and goats{{refn|The lines about Organ Morgan playing for sheep are found at the very end of the play. See {{harvp|Davies|Maud|1995|p=61}}.|group=nb}} and the baker with two wives.<ref>Thomas, D. N. (2004), ''Dylan Remembered 1934–1953'', pp. 160–164 and 295–296, Seren, and also at [https://sites.google.com/site/dylanthomasandnewquay/birth-of-under-milk-wood Milk Wood in Prague]. Taken from Hauková's Memoirs: ''Záblesky života'' (1996), H&H, Jinočany, and translated at Thomas, D. N. (2004), p. 163. This information about Thomas reading a first version of ''Under Milk Wood'' in Prague in March 1949 was first published by FitzGibbon in his 1965 biography of Thomas, after receiving a letter from Hauková: "Thomas then told us the first version of his Milk Wood" (p304). Two others at the party, both of whom had been educated at the English school in Prague, also remember Thomas talking about ''Under Milk Wood'' at the party: see Thomas, D. N. (2004), pp. 167, 169–170.</ref>

====...and back to Laugharne====
A month later, in May 1949, Thomas and his family moved to his final home, the [[Dylan Thomas Boathouse|Boat House]] at Laugharne, purchased for him at a cost of £2,500 in April 1949 by Margaret Taylor.{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=239}} Thomas acquired a garage a hundred yards from the house on a cliff ledge which he turned into his writing shed, and where he wrote several of his most acclaimed poems.<ref name="Writing shed">{{cite web|url=http://www.dylanthomasboathouse.com/english/boathouse/shed.html|title=The Writing Shed|access-date=25 July 2012|work=dylanthomasboathouse.com|archive-date=21 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921013124/http://www.dylanthomasboathouse.com/english/boathouse/shed.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> He also rented "Pelican House" opposite his regular drinking den, [[Brown's Hotel (Laugharne)|Brown's Hotel]], for his parents{{sfnp|Ferris|1989|p=240}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/nature/sites/walking/pages/sw_laugharne.shtml|title=Laugharne|access-date=27 July 2012|publisher=BBC}}</ref> who lived there from 1949 until 1953.

Caitlin gave birth to their third child, a boy named Colm Garan Hart, on 25 July 1949.{{sfnp|Thomas|Tremlett|1986|p=112}}

In October, the New Zealand poet, [[Allen Curnow]], came to visit Thomas at the Boat House, who took him to his writing shed and "fished out a draft to show me of the unfinished ''Under Milk Wood''" that was, says Curnow, titled ''The Town That Was Mad''.<ref>Curnow, A. (1982) "Images of Dylan" in the ''NZ Listener'', 18 December.</ref> This is the first known sighting of the script of the play that was to become ''Under Milk Wood''.<ref>For more on this, see {{harvp|Thomas|2004|loc="The Birth of Under Milk Wood"|p=297}}.</ref>