Dylan Marlais Thomas Bücher

As a rule, a good novel does not always make a good play––especially a novel as unconventional as this one by Dylan Thomas. But Andrew Sinclair’s brilliant adaptation of Adventures in the Skin Trade is the exception. This is the story of young Samuel Bennet––a not entirely innocent provincial––who leaves his Welsh home to let adventure find him in London. Sam is soon deeply involved––all the while with his finger stuck fast in an ale bottle––with a fantastic assortment of odd characters whom only Dylan Thomas could have conceived. What The Times Literary Supplement said about Adventures in the Skin Trade as a novel still applies to the play: “There is no doubt of Thomas’s genius as a comic writer … there are memorable images and phrases on every page.” One reason is Andrew Sinclair’s exceptionally skillful adaptation.

Rebecca’s Daughters is the nearest Dylan Thomas ever came to realizing his ambition to write a film scenario in such a way that it would not only stand ready for shooting but would, at the same time, give the ordinary reader a visual impression of the film in words. A romantic adventure story set in mid-nineteenth-century Wales, Rebecca’s Daughters has a dashing hero who is not what he seems; commonfolk oppressed by the landowners; and finally, justice triumphant over greed and misused privilege. Who is the mysterious "Rebecca" swathed in wide black skirts with a shawl drawn over his mouth and his eyes flashing from beneath the brim of his tall black hat as he exhorts his "daughters" to tear down the hated tollgates imposed by the gentry’s Turnpike Trust? And where does the foppish Anthony Raine––just returned from a tour in India with the despised British army––stand? And how is the lovely Rhiannon to choose between them?