‘All the fun of the fair in the hot, bubbling night’: Write your own summer Fairground

Roll up, roll up! In his radio broadcast, ‘Holiday Memory’, Dylan Thomas writes about August Bank Holiday in Swansea. He describes visiting the fair at dusk, and seeing all kinds of amazing sights!

We’ve picked out some of the animals and objects Dylan describes, to help you write about (or draw!) a fairground you would like to explore:

‘the Most Intelligent Fleas’

‘the Largest Rat in the World’

‘the smallest pony’

‘Round galleries and shies and stalls’

‘strength-machine’        

‘a bitten-eared and barndoor chested pug’

‘distorting mirrors’

‘Girls in skulled and crossboned tunnels’

‘flying chairaplanes’

‘Dragons and hippogriffs’

‘Old men, smelling of Milford Haven in the rain’

‘zebras hallooing under a circle of glow-worms’

Here are some other pointers to get you started: will you visit during the day or the evening? What’s your favourite fairground ride? What’s the scariest sight? Do you win any prizes?

Don’t forget to share your writing with us on Twitter @DTCSwansea, at www.Facebook.com/DylanThomasCentre or email dylanthomas.lit@swansea.gov.uk

This post is also available in: Welsh