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Aeronwy Thomas opens the
Dylan Thomas Trail
Aeronwy Thomas and
Bunny Evans cutting the ribbon
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On July 8th, 2003, Aeronwy Thomas - daughter of
the poet Dylan Thomas, cut the ribbon to officially open the Dylan
Thomas Trail in New Quay. The ceremony occurred at Coronation Park
opposite the Penwig Hotel on the sea front at Newquay at 3 p.m.
She was introduced by Stan Thomas, Chairman of
Ceredigion County Council before giving a short speech in which she
said: "This trail celebrates places where my Father drank, stayed
and lived; places he visited and even places he thought about."
Members of the Dylan Thomas Society and invited
guests afterwards attended a reception at the Black Lion Hotel - one
of Dylan Thomas' favourite watering holes, where Ms Thomas read
extracts from the poem 'Quite Early One Morning'.
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"New Quay was an enormous influence on
the creation of Under Milk Wood because the description of the
drowned sailors, submerged village and other images could only come
from here," said Mrs. Thomas.
"Nevertheless the characters are
universal and are drawn from Swansea, Ferryside and Laugharne as
well as New Quay."
Mrs. Thomas was awarded a
University of Wales Fellowship for her work in promoting her father
and the city of his birth, Swansea.
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Dylan Thomas lived in a small house
across the Bay from the ceremony called 'Majoda' in 1944 - 1945.
It was here that he began to write 'Under Milk Wood-, gaining
inspiration from many of the local people.
Before this he had lived at Talgarreg and from
1941-1943 he stayed in the 'Gelli' Mansion at Talsarn where the beautiful
River Aeron inspired Aeronwy Thomas' name. There is also another
section of the Dylan Thomas Trail in this area.
Born in
London, where her parents lived at the time, she was named for the
River Aeron. The middle child of three, she had two brothers,
Llewellyn (also deceased) and Colm.
At the age of 10 Aeronwy Thomas was enrolled by her mother at the Arts
Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire, now Tring Park School for
the Performing Arts, also spending one year in 1958 at Dartington Hall
School in Devon. Following her father's death in 1953, she and her
mother went to Rome, later moving to Sicily after her mother began a
relationship with her long term partner Giuseppe Fazio. Thomas earned a
BA (Hons) in English and Comparative Religion at Isleworth College, and
a TEFL Diploma at Woking Adult Education College. In 2003 she was
awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Wales, Swansea.
After learning Italian, she became a translator of Italian poetry. She
was also known as an ambassador for her father's work, and as a patron
of the Dylan Thomas Society. She was the President of the Alliance of
Literary Societies.
A much sought-after visiting professor in schools and universities in
the U.K. and abroad, in the late ‘90s she was highly popular with the
students of Giuseppe Perotti School in Torino, Italy, for her
distance-learning "creative writing" courses. In 2007 she became
President of IMMAGINE&POESIA (Image and Poetry), the international
artistic literary movement founded at Teatro Alfa, Torino, Italy.
Personal life
She and her husband Trefor Ellis had two children: a son, Huw, and a daughter, Hannah.
Aeronwy passed away in 2009 in New Malden SW London, aged 66.
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