101 Amazing Facts about Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas is a much-loved Welsh poet, well known for creating the wonderful radio drama Under Milk Wood; initially commissioned for BBC Radio, it was subsequently performed in theatres both nationally and internationally and has been revived on multiple occasions. But did you know that Thomas also wrote the screenplay for a horror film about Burke and Hare, the Edinburgh graverobbers and murderers? And that he wrote no fewer than six film documentaries during the Second World War for the Ministry of Information? Or that in the early 1950s he went to Iran to work on a film for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, also touring the USA giving poetry readings to audiences of well into four figures? Thomas was a heavy boozer and died in Manhattan in 1953, having been drinking at the White Horse Tavern in Greenwich Village. He was only 39 years old, yet his legacy lives on to this day through his wonderful poetry, stories, scripts of BBC broadcasts, and of course Under Milk Wood, still regularly performed by renowned actors.