R S Thomas' Too Brave to Dream
TheGuardian.com, Poem of the Week, online Monday 12 December 2016
Carol Rumens discussed R S Thomas’s poem about ‘The Dressmakers’ by William Roberts from Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art in her Poem of the Week column on the Guardian website. The piece was accompanied by a photograph of the painting in question, and Carol discussed the book as a whole as well as that particular poem.
‘All [the poems] complement the pictures in a vivid, taut-nerved, almost intuitive way, closer to improvisations or quick sketches than to complex parallel compositions. Like little springboards, they impel the reader back to the painting, to see it with a second pair of eyes... a gift for anyone, not least at Christmas time, with an interest in poetry and art.’ - Carol Rumens, TheGuardian.com, Poem of the Week
Click here to read the full article
Church Times, Features, Friday 2 December 2016
A full-page feature on R S Thomas’ Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art ran in the Church Times of 2 December. The piece was illustrated with a colour picture of the painting ‘Man Fed on Ice’ (1934) by Jindrich Styrsky, and by the black and white drawing ‘Ancestors II’ (1935) by Grace W. Pailthorpe. Both pictures were inset in panels, and accompanied by the two poems about them by R S Thomas.
Available online in full by subscription
Church Times, Christmas books, Friday 25 November 2016
A feature review of R S Thomas’ Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art ran in the Church Times of 25 November. The piece ran at the top of the Christmas books feature, and was illustrated with a colour photo of the painting The Dressmakers, 1932’ by William Roberts, with a quote from the accompanying poem by R S Thomas in the caption.
‘Thomas’s responses to the paintings are intriguing, insightful, often dark, but always unique… a book for lovers of both poetry and art, as well as true Thomasophiles.’ – Meryl Doney, Church Times
‘Meryl Doney on a find: responses by R S Thomas to modern art' (available in full by subscription)
Good Morning Wales, BBC Radio Wales, Friday 4 November 2016, 6.30-9am
Professor Tony Brown, co-editor of R S Thomas’ Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art, was interviewed on Good Morning Wales on 4 November. He was speaking about what it was like to discover previously unseen poems by the late R S Thomas interleaved in the pages of two books on modern art donated by Thomas’ wife Betty to the R S Thomas Research Centre.
The poems have now been published in Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art (ed Tony Brown & Jason Walford Davies). Tony and Jason are Co-Directors of the R S Thomas Study Centre at Bangor University.
A two-minute clip from Tony Brown’s interview has been archived on the programme's webpages, where it is illustrated with a photo of R S Thomas:
Click here to listen
BBC Wales website, online Thursday 3 November 2016
The BBC Wales website ran a news piece about the publication of newly discovered poems by R S Thomas being published in Too Brave to Dream: Encounters with Modern Art. The piece was illustrated with a b/w photo of R S Thomas.
Golwg 360, online Thursday 3 November 2016
A news piece in Welsh ran on Golwg 360, illustrated with a colour photo of R S Thomas.
[13 December 2016]
