Caitlin Thomas

I am currently reading Double Drink Story which is Caitlin Thomas' book about her time with Dylan Thomas. I started reading the book with a certain trepidation because although I love and admire Dylan Thomas, I never think that I would like to have met him. In fact, I'm always annoyed by accounts of his and Caitlin's mad drunkenness. And I'm suspicious of writers who try to glamorise their so-called 'Bohemian lives.' I thought that this book might also be written in that vein. But it isn't at all. Not at all. On the contrary, Caitlin Thomas is devastatingly honest and emphasises again and again that her and Dylan's lives were horribly sad and fatally blighted by alcohol. I think I've seldom read such an honest book. Also this is a very well written book. Caitlin may not have had much experience as a writer but she had plenty of raw talent. Sentence after sentence sings. If only she had written more. But how could she with Dylan as a husband? Finally this is a very sad book because it is about wasted talent. But it is also sad because Caitlin never seems to forgive herself, and she should do, because she shines out of this book as an amazing woman - full of honesty, love and joie de vivre.