Editing Dylan Thomas (section)

====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>