Bev Smith from Cwmbran
My father who is 85 and nearly blind keeps on about Gwyn Thomas and his work. I am really keen to get hold of audio cds for him to listen to - does anyone know where I can find them, if they exist?

Guy Morris - West Wales
My parents were close friends of Gwyn and Lynne Thomas. Many's the evening I spent with them, John and Mag Morgan of Southerndown Farm and Gwyn and Lynne at the Three Golden Cups in Southerndown. What a mind! What a wit! I only wish I'd been old enough to appreciate the pearls that used to drop before me - the rest all got the significance. I do vividly remember one occasion when he enquired as to what I'd ben doing during that particular afternoon. When I'd told him that I'd been listening to records with my girlfriend in the flat he responded with his usual lightning with "Ah, extended play, no doubt" to which the assembled company broke down and I was left bereft of response - what a lesson, what a man!

Clive Bundy, Ogmore, Bridgend
Like many of the writers above Gwyn remains a massive personality in my mindI would love to be able to obtain some of his recordings -- "The Sunday School Trip (was it to Barry or Porthcawl)" a great tale!! Any tips would be gratefully accepted.

Paul Woodcock from Bristol
I have been looking for a copy of the film Selected Exits with Anthony Hopkins. Can anyone help me? I know somebody who was in the film, and would desperately like to get a copy for him.

John Fletcher, Victoria, BC , Canada
Like Gwyn Thomas, I also was born in the Rhondda and spent time at Barry Grammar, a single term in the old school and four years in the new building. I was never taught by him, but I will always remember his talks at the eistedfodds. One year, he talked about his going to a new school and being asked to spend a day teaching the kids French. I cannot imagine what kind of school that would have been - maybe he made it up! He said that by 9:30 he was on Personal Pronouns, by 12:30 he was on the Subjunctive and by 4 o'clock he was on the bus home! What a character!

Brad Getz in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
I've just begun reading GT's poetry and I have to say that I'm stunned and dismayed that his voice with its depth, power and maturity has been largely kept hidden from US audiences. The poem "Crossing the Shore" especially seized me like nothing I've read in a very long time.

Brian Hopkins, Wenvoe GlamorganMm
The 1939-1945 war had some effect on those like myself who attended Barry Grammar School in 1941-1946. Gwyn Thomas was my history master and entertained us with humurous tales of Oxford University and Spain but I remember little of the major subject. Read his book A Welsh Eye.

Fred Gardner, Alameda, California
Leaves in the Wind is a masterpiece. Monthly Review Press (New York) reissued it in the 1960s and might still have copies available.

O Joslin from N Ireland
The BBC production Selected Exits is not available to buy and we wore our copy out years ago! As a fan I contacted the BBC. Maybe if we ALL lobby them....?

FH Taylor from Devon
Gwyn Thomas - he had a way with words. A raconteur extraordinare - sadly missed.

David G Davenport ex Bradford & Ibiza
I was first introduced to the hilarious descriptive writing of GT by my English master at Bradford Grammar School in the fifties. Frost on My Frolic and I've been looking for a copy ever since. His radio broadcasts were also very powerful memories in the sixties. I wish it were possible to obtain some recordings of his spoken work.

Phyllis Bowen
I have read and enjoyed Gwyn Thomas`s books and an excerpt from one about the Penderis Male voice Choir practicing in the old pub in Llanwono made me realize how much he loved his Rhondda. He was a talented character no one has filled his place.

David Lazell of East Leake
As an old boy of Bridgend Grammar School in the 1940s, I recognise the characters of Meadow Prospect, except that the Bridgendians were more eccentric. When the then president of the Adult School visited Loughborough some while ago, he said that his idea of heaven was to be in a comfortable room in which the three Thomases, Dylan, Gwyn and Wynford Vaughan, were in conversation. I wondered if there would be any pause throughout eternity in which he would be able to contribute.... Michael Parnall's biography of Gwyn, 'Laughter from the Dark' really sums up the life of the broadcaster and storyteller. Though I heard something of Dylan from Meredith Jones, who knew him (Meredith was county youth organiser for Glamorgan, early 1950s) I've always thought Gwyn a more interesting character. A friend in North Cornelly, in teacher training at Barry, remembers his lecturing, but on the whole, it seems to have been quite serious. Education is always serious in Wales, and itself generates such comments as that addressed to me by the art master at Bridgend: 'you have two pairs of feet, no hands at all.' But Barnum never called.....

Betsy Thompson, Port Talbot
Does anyone know if there is still film/video etc of the BBC programme where Gwyn Thomas was talking with Cliff Morgan and Harry Secombe (actually he was talking and they were laughing) still in existance - if so can it be bought?

Eric (Nobby) Thomas, Portishead
As another old Barry County School boy I feel I have to join in these fond memories and tributes. My recollection of 'Killer' was this swarthy bespectacled chap, books and papers under one arm, the other inside his gown. We assumed the nickname came from his rumoured participation in the Spanish Civil War. I am priviliged to share his name but, alas, not his talent! 1948 doesn't feel so long ago now.

Diana from Wiltshire
I have never understood why, but the sound of Gwyn Thomas' voice immediately transports me back to my childhood. He must have given a lot of broadcasts perhaps, because my memory of him seems to be connected to the radio rather than TV. His humourous and far reaching comments are unforgettable and I was so pleased to see him on TV in later years. I have laughed with him and been driven to deep thought by some of his talks. He will never be forgotten in Wales or anywhere else I hope. My grandmother came from the Rhondda - maybe this encouraged us to listen - I don't know. Whatever, he had an impact no doubt about it.

Len Smith, Swansea
I wish he were still around, then I'd pay more attention

Webster from Victoria, BC Canada
Where , oh where, can I get more of this wonderful wit? Are there book stores in the UK which would likely have second hand books of Gwyn's work? Does Foyles still exist? If not...to whom do I write?

Gwydion M Williams, East Anglia
I got to know about Gwyn Thomas via 'All Things Betray Thee', a novel set in 1835. This was reissued in 1986, with an introduction by my father Raymond Williams. I've just added an entry about Gwyn Thomas to the Wikipedia, which is becoming a 'hub' of internet connections. Anyone can go there, register and then made their own additions to my small entry.

Alan Selby in Barry
Just another contribution of wit from the classroom of Gwyn Thomas. Being taught welsh in one of the science labs at the Grammar School, Killer delivered his lesson walking slowly back and forth in the aisle, up and down, past the long work benches. As he did so, our heads followed, 'til at one point he paused at the back of the class and looked down at a boy, caught "member" in hand. Turning on his heels he began walking again, and over his shoulder addressed the boy with the words "carry on like that boy, and you will come to a sticky end". Please forgive me, rude I know, but the memory still makes me laugh out loud. what a wonderful man he was.

Polly Powley from Gibsons Canada
In my opinion "The World Cannot Hear You" is the perfect book. I read about 6-10 books a week( I am now 71) and have since I was a teen, and still go back to this great witty, insanely funny novel time after time.

I have read many (if not all) of Mr. Thomas's books and plays and good they are, but The World is the best ever.

Peter Young, Milan, Italy
Gwyn Thomas was my form master and French teacher 1955 - 1956 at Barry. The form was 5c, the lowest in academic achievement, but G.T. treated us as adults and consequently gave us a certain sense of responsibility. He would always finish the morning register in record time, obviously despising the administrative side of his duties. This gave us the chance of getting to the morning assembly before the other classes and we would therefore take the best places - at the back, where we would indulge in mild anarchy. Some of his cracks remain in my mind.

"Please may i go to the toilet, sir?"
"Can't you use your inkwell?"

G.T. as a substitute teacher: "What's your lesson, boys?"
"Religious Instruction, sir."
"Right, 45 minutes silent prayer."

French Translation Exercise - Cinderella. The princess said - it will not fit, - any boy who laughs will be sent from the room!

He was known as "Killer" for his habit of wearing a rakish trilby and his coat collar turned up, giving him us faint impression of a mafia 'sicario'.

Andy Miles from California
"Killer" was my Spanish teacher at Barry Grammar School, in the mid and late 50's. Politically, we were poles apart, but that fact never kept me from admiring his wit and poignancy. What wonderful memories of a mentor who always encouraged me to follow my dreams and never heed the naysayers. I will never forget the time that I "borrowed" the detention book and concealed it behind Mr Thomas's black-board. "Creep", the headmaster, was furious when he was informed that the book was missing. As my name appeared so frequently in the infamous book, I became a prime suspect. Creep strolled into the Spanish class and demanded that the guilty party "who removed the detention book from these premises" identify himself immediately, all the while staring me in the eyes. As I had not technically removed the book, I remained silent. The book was, in fact, only a few inches from Creep's head, behind the sliding black-board. The headmaster left, obviously frustrated, and I received a knowing wink from Gwyn Thomas. I was unaware, at the time, that he was on to me. After class he slid the blackboard a few inches, revealing the red cover of the missing detention book, and left the room. That afternoon, I did remove the book from the premises, and brought it with me when I emigrated. After all these years I can still see that wink from that master of humor, Gwyn Thomas.

Kevin Plumley - Spain
I remember him on TV back then referring to Don Juan as 'this sexual divebomber'. I could never have enough of his acerbic wit and same precision of language that that other genius, Kipling, had before him. A revival of Gwyn's writings would do much good to remind the deliberately dumbed-down public of the glories of the real English language in the hands of a master. Perhaps for that very reason it might be too much to hope for. But we can still hope. In fact, his writings are so good that I will see whether I can have permission to put them on the net. My sister, who knew him via TV, said he was often a depressed man. Well, let's see whether we can belatedly cheer his memory by bringing him back into public view.

Donna Huston-Ventura, Ca
I have been looking for 10 years for a copy of Selected Exits with Anthony Hopkins. Can anyone help me? It was such a beautiful story and I am sorry that I let it pass through the cracks. I should have ordered it way back then. Thanks.

Nigel Ritchie from Pencoed
Gwyn (Killer) Thomas taught (or tried to teach) me French for 2 very long years, 1956 and 1957 in that bastion of education, Barry Grammar School. I didn't learn much French, but I did have the joy of experiencing the eloquence and inimitable humour of a very talented man. In later years, I also knew the friendship of both he and his wife, Lynne, and have many fond memories of his wit and subtle comedy. I can still hear his deep laugh and remember his skill with word juggling!

Many, many instances come to mind of such phrases as "Boy, if you don't stop tapping that pencil on your desk I shall throw you, and the pencil, through the window!" We were never quite sure if he meant it, but as a previous correspondant has noted, he would then burst into an infectious chuckle.

Another time, when enjoying a pre Christmas drink with him and Lynne in his "local", he was positively fed up with the piped musack eminating from the rafters, and said, in a typical Gwyn Thomas "loud" voice, "If that bloody music is not switched off soon, we will all perish from carol corrosion!"

Fond, fond memories, of a lovely man. I would also like to take to task the comment on this site that drink played a part in his demise - not so! Yes, he did die of complications because of diabetes, and enjoyed his tipple, but in all my years of knowing him, I never saw him the worse for drink, even when we were in the company of Richard Burton and Liz Taylor!

John Martin from Staines
Elequence is the word that comes to mind in describing Gwyn Thomas. The English language (although delivered with an unmistakable Welsh lilt) became poetry in his mouth and his wryly acerbic comments on his own people warmed me to that capricious race. A wonderful example of his sparkling wit was his description of the Village Atheist Society which met weekly at the local pub "for the express purpose of evicting God".

Alwyn Evans from Aberdare
I never tire of reading his novels. I only wish his tapes of interviews and in particular his views of other parts of Wales could be obtained. I always recall his 'funny' remark about the dour and serious nature of 'Cardies', that their sole contribution to humour was 'stripped shrouds'. Marvellous.

Gordon Hall from Wirral
In my teens and early twenties I avidly awaited each new Meadow Prospect novel, delighting in the humour (not a gift for which the Welsh are generally famed!) and use of language. Above all they showed that love of learning which was part and parcel of Welsh life in those dark days of depression and back-breaking toil.

Where are they now? I search second hand bookshops and libraries in vain. I would particularly like to see if they withstand the change of times and customs and my own increasing age!

John Hearne from Inverurie, Scotland
I remember Gwyn interviewed on 'Tonight' when the Severn Bridge was opened in 1966. He voiced fears that the Bristol Channel would experience an abundance of concussed fish. Sadly, such gems of wit only survive in the memories of viewers. They were never recorded.

David Jones from Plymouth
I was born in Ferndale in the Rhondda a few miles from Gwyn's birthplace but knew nothing about him as writer until the mid 50s, when I read 'The World Cannot Hear You'. The account of the brothers Windsor and Balmoral Cann singing cowboy songs at the club talent night reduced me to helpless laughter.

Enquiries about this new writer who had swum into view made me realise I had met him during the 1945 election. We crowded into a primary school classroom, uncomfortable in children's desks and listened to a dark stocky man with thick horn-rimmed spectacles who as warm-up man for the official Labour candidate turned out to be ten times as fluent and eloquent as the man later elected to Parliament.

Gwyn Thomas expresses the essence of Rhondda life in the years follwing World War One and, indeed, the 40s when I last lived there. He writes out of a terrible rage at the injustice and deprivation visited upon the people, but refusing to be destroyed by his anguish, transmutes his feelings into wonderfully sardonic comedy - which is, nevertheless still close to tears at times.

Among his plays I recall two he wrote for radio(one called Gazoo) and the other about an outing to Barry Island. "Stop feeding that baby Pop; his eyes are bulging".

I agree that his work deserved more recognition and recent attempts to buy his books show how little of it is still in print. Fortunately second-hand shops still yield many treasures. Gwyn was the authentic Rhondda voice and those who hail from those Valleys will always hold him in special regard.

Lowri John from Pontypridd
I am studying Gwyn's poems for my GCSEs...I'm currently studyng 'Damwain' and I find it fantastic.

Rod Fountain - Durban, South Africa
I was in Gwyn Thomas's french class at the 'Old School' at the top of Buttrills Hill before moving to the 'Glass-House' on Barry Road. I thoroughly enjoyed his classes as he most certainly had his own special style of teaching. When it came to marking term papers 'Killer' had a wonderful anarchist method - he would look at the name on the top of the paper ... then walk up to the boy and fix him with a fearsome stare - then mark the paper purely on his feeling of how the boy understood the language, and totally ignored the content.

Another of his teaching methods was to set a translation from the French into English, and it was often a rather rude, if not disgusting story he had written to encourage the dirty minded boys!

I recall quite clearly one episode where he was in the midst of writing one of his plays. The class became a bit rowdy and disturbed his concentration. He jumped up and screamed in fury at us - the class fell into fearful silence. His face grew red, his hands began to shake with anger and he walked up to the first desk, as if ready to tear every boy limb from limb. Then, as we sat quaking in fear, he seemed to see how ridiculous it all was and burst out laughing.

I am 60 years old now, and after my career as an engineer, I have gone back to school studying French at a local university - but sadly, there will never be another 'Killer' Thomas.

Wyn Sheryn in Lancashire
I'm an ex-pupil of that red brick pile on Buttrills Hill in Barry. Sadly I never was taught by 'Killer' Thomas, as I chose French rather than Spanish. But his laconic wit and irreverent humour was not denied to me.

Our timetables of 1951/2 often contained 'free' periods, no formal lessons. But you had to spend your 'free' in a classroom under the supervision of a master. Consequently those in the know always made a bee line for Killer's classes. And we were always amply rewarded.

One day teaching Spanish to a troublesome 4th year, he berated a boy for talking too much. In a moment of heated exasperation he shouted - Why don't you take the vow of eternal silence boy, like the Trappist monks? We giggled. He turned to the board to continue writing and after a moment turned again to the class and in a conversational tone said - That's where we get the expression, shut your trappist.

Great memories. Would there were more like him. By the way, I loved the collective 'lack of principals'. After my time I think. Thanks Gwyn, fondly remembered.

Mark Davies in Cardiff
His universal accesibility is the main reason why, as a product of Wales, his appeal can never simply be limited by national boundaries. Gwyn's books are laced with comic venom, set against the backdrop of depression and poverty. He sets out to chronicle an age with a language as rich and as eloquent as his working class heroes.

Chris Flanagan in Solihull, West Midlands
Way back in 1972, when I was a student teacher, I was stumbling despairingly through an essay devoted to contrasting the childhood idylls and traumas of two authors of my choice - Gwyn Thomas and Laurie Lee. 'A Few Selected Exits' was an obvious source for Gwyn's early days, but I decided I needed just a couple of more insights from the great man, to administer to my ailing masterpiece. I wrote to him.

A couple of days later a letter from Gwyn hit my doormat. I quote, 'I think it's true to say that there is little in my autographical work that conveys any sense of innocence or freshness. I recall very few, soft idylls. I belonged to a society twisted right out of plumb by religious and political awareness and turbulence...for every writer, childhood is the improvised and mainly ricketty mythology into which he dives for shelter from the rain of contemporary reality. And in my mythology if, by the age of eight one was not dead, a deacon, or founding a left-wing splinter group, one was dawdling. One thing is for sure : a writer might think he is making an absolutely crisp objective judgement of something that happened this morning. But at some point or another that evaluation is going to be clouded by the sentiment of his first ten years on this earth. At the age of eleven the nerve of wonder has hardened to stone.'

Of course, I quoted directly from Gwyn's letter knowing that his powers as a literary miracle worker would make my dead essay walk. It did. Thanks Gwyn.

Dave Jones from Runcorn
My father came from Ferndale in the Rhondda and my uncle taught with Gwyn Thomas in Barry Grammar School. One of the finest things which my father gave to me before he died was a collection of Gwyn's books and plays, many of them signed by the author.

His style of writing captures - on the one hand - that peculiar South Wales and Rhondda view of life, with its jaundiced optimism tinged with quizzical cynicism. Yet he captures the universal aspirations and qualities of the working class. He saw beyond the limits, constraints, and potential poison of national boundaries; he was a true internationalist. This brought him into conflict with myopic nationalism but was arguably his greatest legacy.

Gareth Williams in California
Before moving to the USA in 1962 we saw 'The Keep' in London. I'd always enjoyed seeing Gwyn Thomas on TV in 'The Tonight Show' and 'The Brain's Trust'. At our local library in Los Gatos I found his book 'The World Cannot hear You'. I'm now the proud owner of the book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed his wit and wisdom.

Andrew Lloyd in Eastbourne
Gwyn Thomas lived in the same street as we did when I was a child and my father Digby Lloyd was a teacher in the same school at that time. I don't recall him much but my father always gave the impression of Gwyn being someone who, while not the greatest Spanish teacher, was someone with a formidable intellect, a large personality and a sharp wit; he once allegedly described a colleague as being 'lower than a snake's chin' and also, when asked to provide a collective noun for headteachers, volunteered the very sharp reply of 'a lack of principals', which I've always liked. My father always felt Gwyn's books never got the acclaim they deserved.

What's your opinion of Gwyn Thomas?