When and why did you start writing?
At school (Swansea Grammar), I guess. I was not the sharpest tool in the box when it came to academia. Writing was freedom. I got going properly when I did my National Service in the RAF, 1947-9. I was on a bomber station in Yorkshire; I was a pay clerk. The office had typewriters where I could write two-fingered stories, pale imitations of Dylan Thomas's in 'Portrait of the artist as a young dog.'
Later I was stationed at Gloucester, and sold the Welsh BBC a 20-minute 'feature' (which radio went in for in those days) about a (semi-imaginary) rural concert - or something like that.
The barrack-hut used to pull my leg about my writing ('allo Shakeseare') but stopped when I showed 'em, the cheque: 14 guineas (£14.14s);multiply by at least 30 to get present-day value. The radio producer was P.H. Burton, who sort of adopted a miner's son. Richard Jenkins: who became Richard Burton.
What inspired you to write about Dylan and Caitlin Thomas?
I had a Thomas phase as a teenager because he was our local poet. Grew out of it. In 1976, by which time I'd published a few books, a publisher suggested a biog of Thomas. I was reluctant, till my agent sold the idea to a US publisher, thus doubling the size of the advance. Not much inspiration there, but as many writers will tell you if they're honest, accident and necessity matter. Caitlin was my idea, a natural progression 15 years late. But no one cares much about her. A pity; she was a strange and remarkable woman.
How do you conduct research for your biographies?
Assiduously; look for papers, especially letters, look for people Don't expect your sources to agree. Biography is the art of guesswork and interpretation.
Have you any advice for budding writers ,be they novelists or biographers?
Keep going.
Can you tell us more about your next book?
I've just finished a book about Gower, ie next door to my home territory, Swansea. Something I've thought of writing for years - a sort of indulgence. 'Gower in History: Myth, People, Landscape. Armanaleg Books (PO Box 177, Hay-on-Wye, HR3 5XZ,) £9.95' Full of episodes, incidents, colour, stuff about Welshness v Englishness (historically there was an 'English' Gower and a 'Welsh' Gower). Some crime in it; even a bit of sex. Published 7 May 2009. A good, entertaining read. But I would say that, wouldn't I?
In the 1960s you wrote a book and a series of TV documentaries about The City. What is your opinion on any changes in how The City is run which might have precipitated the current financial crisis?
The crisis isn't local. The City (of London) is a sinner along with many financial centres. Bankers and brokers are greedier than they were in the sixties. The City liked to boast, in a genteel sort of way, that it was a place where trust was paramount, and men (not women, 40 years ago) had a shared interest in probity. There was some truth in it. But with the global competiveness of recent decades, that 'gentleman's club,' which was part real and part fiction, has gone for ever. A BBC website is now showing my 6-part 'Men and Money' tv series of 1964, as a sort of exercise in nostalgia for a vanished financial world.
For many years you were The Observer's Radio Critic. What do you think of the state of radio today.
I rarely listen except when I'm in the car (and my car radio only gets VHF, which in mid Wales means you have more chance of hearing Radio Iceland than English Radio 4). I did radio for the Observer for nearly 40 years. I don't have time to hear radio in the day and in the evening I prefer an undemanding dollop of telly.
Which of your books is your favourite and would like people to read?
Fiction: Infidelity, novel, 1999, out of print, but all queue up and demand it, and I might get a publisher to reissue it.
Non-fiction: Caitlin, but that's out of print too.
