The Prince of Wales records a Dylan Thomas poem for National Poetry Day

3rd October 2013

The Boat House, Laugharne, the home of Dylan Thomas.

The Prince of Wales, Royal Patron of The Dylan Thomas 100 Festival, has recorded one of his favourite Dylan Thomas poems, 'Fern Hill', to mark National Poetry Day. 
Dylan Thomas is one of Wales's most important and revered writers, and the Dylan Thomas 100 Festival, which will begin later this year and run throughout 2014, will mark the centenary of his birth with a worldwide programme of events

The Prince's recording is available online from 0800hrs BST today (Thursday 3rd October) to mark National Poetry Day, a nationwide celebration of poetry. 'Fern Hill' is one of Thomas's best known poems. It evokes an idyllic, lost, Welsh rural childhood. 'Fern Hill' recently came fourth in a list of poems most frequently requested by listeners to BBC Radio Four's 'Poetry Please' programme, over a 35 year period.
The Prince of Wales said: "For National Poetry Day, I was very glad, if somewhat hesitant! – to be able to record a reading of one of my personal favourites, 'Fern Hill', with its poignant and moving evocation of a rural west Wales childhood. I cannot help feeling this is one of the great legacies of Thomas's poetry – that it inspires people to appreciate the incomparable landscape of Wales." ¹
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