Dylan Thomas's Granddaughter On Laugharne

14/01/12

Dylan Thomas’s granddaughter Hannah Ellis on the poet and her famous family
by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail Jan 14 2012

Dylan Thomas’ granddaughter wants to revive his work and image to mark the centenary of his birth. Hannah Ellis shares her plans with Abbie Wightwick

There’s no mistaking the family resemblance. Hannah Ellis has the trademark Dylan Thomas curls and features but the granddaughter of the great Welsh poet is looking to the future, not the past.

As the centenary of Dylan Thomas’ birth approaches in 2014, Hannah wants to bring his work to a new generation and update his image in cyberspace.

She’d even like tours of the Boathouse at Laugharne, complete with a guide dressed as his fiery wife – her grandmother – Caitlin, believing her grandfather would approve of the creative innovations with which she hopes to resurrect his work.

“I would love a Dylan Thomas app too,” she says. “Dylan Thomas isn’t even on (e-reader) Kindle, although I know that’s something the agent really wants to do.

“I’d like a website for the centenary and Dylan Thomas to be studied more in education by children of all ages.”

As president of the Swansea-based Dylan Thomas Society, Hannah, 32, second child of the poet’s only daughter Aeronwy, also has the Welsh Government on board.

Discussions are taking place for a series of commemorative events in 2014, partly funded by the Welsh Government.

As a primary school teacher and mother of a two-year-old son, Hannah is full of ideas about how to bring her famous relative into education as well as putting him on the radar for people of all ages.

A Child’s Christmas In Wales could be used as a theme for activities with the youngest children, while teenagers would surely relate to his work, more than half of which was written before he was 20, she muses.

Adults could be helped into his work with a more concerted effort to make the places in which he lived and worked more open and visible to the public.

Talking about her plans, Hannah has an energy that is hard to argue with.

She maintains that Dylan ought to have a greater profile in his homeland and beyond, and this anniversary is a good launchpad to take him into the 21st century.

“There’s a need for younger members in the Dylan Thomas Society and we want younger members.

“The society needs a presence on the internet and Facebook and have online membership.

“There’s so much going on already but everything is separate and fragmented and we want to bring it together.”

And she has evidence to back this up. The Boathouse at Laugharne, where Dylan wrote and lived with his young family, is owned by Carmarthenshire county, there’s a walking tour a few miles away in Newquay and in Swansea, his childhood home Cwmdonkin Drive is privately owned.

There is also, of course, the Dylan Thomas Museum and the Dylan Thomas Theatre in Swansea, both of which Hannah adores.

But any fan visiting Wales would be hard-pressed to link this up without skipping from one site to another on the internet or hunting hither and thither through paper guides.

Hannah would like official brown tourist road signs directing the way and a one-stop online shop where people can find out all about Dylan.

As she points out, there aren’t many poets of note whose homes and place of work are still there and this could be a huge pull for Wales as well as his work.

“I’m researching and learning about his work and what I haven’t found is an idiot’s guide to Dylan Thomas, somewhere you can go online to find out,” Hannah says.

Where her grandfather may have been a chaotic bohemian in everyday matters, Hannah has the organisation and urgency of her profession.

Listing her plans, ideas and meetings, it’s clear that if anyone can ensure the poet’s legacy is kept alive and modern, it’s the granddaughter born more than a quarter century after he died.

Hannah, born and bought up in London, can’t pinpoint a time when she became aware of her famous grandfather or what he did but can’t remember not knowing either.

His presence was always there in the books, papers and pictures treasured by her mother Aeronwy, the only daughter of the poet and Caitlin Macnamara.

“There was always that nice feeling as a child about being able to go to The Boathouse and run around in and out and past the sign that said ‘no entry’,” says Hannah.

“I was aware he was a poet and my mother always encouraged reading, but I can’t remember when I became aware.

“Our house was full of his books everywhere and we have pictures and paintings. It was a very, very important part of my mother’s life.”

As a child and growing up, Hannah was taken to productions of Under Milk Wood but believes her mother didn’t really discover her father’s work until she was in her 30s, as she is now herself re-discovering his work in her third decade.

While Hannah never met her grandfather she did meet Caitlin, though not often as she lived in Sicily where she moved with her children shortly after the poet’s death.

“I only met my grandmother twice because she was in Italy,” she recalls.

“All I really remember is she got me a Care Bear when she came over. I’ve also heard stories about her getting the wrong train to our house.”

Hannah still has relatives in Wales and visits often with her son Charlie. She’s keen he connects to his Welsh roots and knows about his great grandfather.

“My son loves The Boathouse and we’ve visited Cwmdonkin Drive. When we go to the Boathouse at Laugharne he says, ‘great-grandad’s house’ and he can say ‘Dylan Thomas’ – his nanny taught him it.”

This is his paternal nana. Aeronwy tragically died of cancer aged 66 just before Charlie was born in 2009. Hannah still misses her, saying it was shattering losing her mother, having her first child and leaving teaching for maternity leave all in the space of 12 months.

All of this made her reflect and was what led her back to her roots and examining her past, her grandfather’s legacy included.

“My son was born two weeks after my mother died of cancer in 2009 and I got married in 2010. It was a time to reflect.

“You have that chance when you have a child of your own. My son looks like a typical Thomas too with big, blond curls.

“When he was born I also stopped teaching. I was Miss Ellis, that was my role – I lost that, then I lost my mum just before I became a mum. It was very hard.”

She says she took on her mother’s role in the family – where she’s known as ‘the boss’ – and at the Dylan Thomas Society where she replaced her as president.

“Subconsciously I must have been thinking about the past.

“Because mum’s ashes are scattered at Laugharne, I went back and realised I didn’t know enough about my grandfather and thought, ‘wow’. I thought, ‘This can’t be ignored, someone in the family has a responsibility to ensure his work is continued’.”

She says her own mother spent a long time coming to terms with her chaotic upbringing.

Her father and Caitlin drank, he had affairs and theirs was a notoriously stormy marriage ending with his death aged 39 in New York.

Even this was surrounded by mystery and chaos, with doctors arguing whether it was alcohol poisoning or pneumonia.

As a result, Hannah says Aeronwy made an effort to give her and brother Huw, now 35, a stable upbringing.

But growing up in London with her mother and Pontypridd-born father, Trefor Ellis, a keen member of the London Welsh Chorale, was never dull.

“I assume mum consciously, because she had quite a chaotic upbringing, worked really hard to ensure my brother and I had a really stable one. But she was never boring.

“Mum was anything but boring!”

At the back of all her memories about her family there is a certain wariness.

Hannah is aware that her grandfather can be viewed in a negative light and has been vulnerable to stories in the media.

While her mother loved the 2008 film The Edge Of Love, which painted a lurid picture of the poet’s passions through the lives of Caitlin and his lover Vera Phillips, Hannah regrets that it’s more about Vera than him and doesn’t mention the work which made him famous.

Aeronwy liked the fact that it would bring his work to a new audience via Hollywood stars Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Matthew Rhys.

Hannah can see the benefit of this but wants people to know Dylan Thomas for his writing rather than his reputation.

“The negative can be annoying. I was somewhere a few weeks ago and someone said, ‘Our grandfathers were the same, they both liked a drink’.

“It slightly frustrates me. I’d like a balanced view. Some of it is true and it’s fine to say he was out of control but you can explain why.

“I want to revive Dylan Thomas, his life and work, have a positive image and get him back into the education system.

“Academically he wasn’t very good apart from English at which he excelled. He could be a role model, especially for boys.

“He wasn’t perfect. He wanted to be seen as a bohemian and never wanted to be seen as boring.”

Perhaps she feels closer to him because of the startling family resemblance, I wonder.

She laughs and says she hasn’t inherited his writing skills, much as she’d have liked to.

“The first thing a lot of people ask me is, ‘Do you write?’ I’m not a writer.

“But the more I read of my grandfather’s work, the more I realise he was really perceptive and I know I’m very good at that.

“I’m very aware of people’s moods. I think I’ve inherited things from him but they’ve come out in different ways.”

For now her creativity is focussed on the centenary and she thinks he’d love her ideas if he was watching.

“You could make Cwmdonkin Drive interactive,” she concludes.

“I think he would like that. Because he wanted to be bohemian and creative and never boring in any way. The performer in him would like it.

“You could rent the tin shed at Laugharne where he wrote and get people’s passion going again.

“You could even have someone dressed up as Caitlin giving tours of the house or meals in the style of the time.”

She speaks in a language her grandfather wouldn’t recognise but would have been sure to approve when she adds: “I want to get a buzz about the centenary going.

“I want the centenary to leave a legacy. I want to get projects in schools and new audiences, young and old, for his work.”

Editor's Comment: I have long been asking for Laugharne to have some actors roaming the streets in the tourist season in character of Dylan and Caitlin. The shed wasn't even opened for Jimmy Carter. It has been run entirely as a municipal building with a complete lack of imagination and a failure to embrace modern technology. Propped up with public funds and as drab as a grey day with a stale sandwich and cold cuppa it is crying out to be handed over to a private concern. Perhaps then the fans and not to mention the local economy might just get a slice of the great man's Worldwide appeal by way of some trading on his work. It has been a complete injustice and manufactured distraction focusing on his reputation.