Last week, after the first part of my reading of A Christmas Carol, Mark Steyn Club member Rede Batcheller wrote with a request:
Next, if you dare, Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales. TYVM!!!!
Well, I love that tale, Rede, but I'm not sure my Welsh vowels are totally reliable. So we have something even better for you to kick off this Christmas weekend - an authentic Welsh lady, the great Siân Phillips, who, during her own childhood Christmases, actually worked with Dylan Thomas - as we discuss below. Click to watch:
Among the benefits of Mark Steyn Club membership is that you can enjoy our TV content in any medium you desire: video, audio or text. So, if you'd rather experience Siân and Dylan Thomas in audio only, please log-in here.
You can find more non-visual content from The Mark Steyn Show over in our Audio & Transcripts department. And, if you'd like to hear more from Siân, she recreates her Tony-nominated performance of "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have" on our Frank Loesser centenary special, available here.
My acting skills are considerably below Siân's, but, if you've yet to hear my take on Charles Dickens this Christmas, you can find that here. There'll be more video entertainment this Christmas Eve with a special live-performance edition of our Song of the Week.
Tales for Our Time, Song of the Week and much of our other content are made possible through the support of members of The Mark Steyn Club. We launched The Mark Steyn Club earlier this summer, and on this first clubland Christmas I'm immensely heartened by all those viewers and listeners and readers across the globe - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Surrey to the Solomon Islands - who've signed up to be a part of it. Oh, and if you're still holiday shopping at this late hour, don't forget our limited-time Christmas Gift Membership, which includes your choice of a handsome hardback or CD set personally autographed by me to your loved one. The book or albums won't arrive till after Boxing Day now, but all the other delights of membership can be electronically delivered to your friends and family on Christmas morning. More details here.
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20 Member Comments
That was lovely, warm, beautiful. I always delight in 'older' people's interviews and conversation, if you can forgive my saying so, because they tend more often than not to have a charm and depth and texture totally absent from younger people. There's a class and grace that simply does not exist the younger you go. Thanks for this, for many reasons.
Hi fellow Steyn Clubbers.
Check out "A Christmas Childhood " by Patrick Kavanagh
One of my favorite poems from my school days.
Happy Christmas Mark to you and your family.
Very nice, thanks. It brings back particular childhood memories.
Clip from Red Dwarf from 2.20 clarifies the status of the Welsh language.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa_gZ_7sdZg
Looking up the appropriate Welsh words to show appreciation for the delightful Dylan Thomas Christmas in Wales video, I came across the Buzz Feed link with the Welsh expression used in the Monty Python skit: Mae Fy hofrenfad yn llawn llyswennod. A jolly Merry Christmas to all!
I think the Welsh accent spoken by women is alluring. I'd add that I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to differentiate between north and south but I know what I like!
What a delight! She's wonderful! Thank you and Merry Christmas to everyone!
Up my street and around the block stood the home of my childhood pal whose parents came from Wales.
Christmastime at the Marsch family abode was as special as the word itself.
Thanx for such a warm Christmas tribute from Siân Phillips.
Merry Christmas to Mark and fellow Clubbers.
Tom in Missouri
Bendegedig! Diolch, Mark!
This is too much. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch, here I come.
I didn't see your comment before I made mine. Sorry.
No, no. I hadn't heard of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch until your comment, but I have to go see this place. Mostly, my ancestors were from Ireland. I could hear Gaelic similarities in Siân Phillips' voice when she spoke about how to say "Merry Christmas" in Welsh. I could also hear, in her magnificent reading, what might have inspired Bob Dylan to adopt his name from Dylan Thomas. Mark has ignited/re-ignited my interest in old Great Britain, and after listening to this, I booked my ticket to go see Wales.
I'd never read the poem, nor heard it read. I'm glad the first time was this time. Ms. Phillips' reading stopped time me. When it was over, I couldn't countenance having to leave the "theater".
Merry Christmas everyone.
For those of you who have been to Wales, the reason you cannot read their signs is because Merv Griffen and Pat Sajak went there and bought all their vowels for Wheel of Fortune. They did the same thing to Poland.
Fortunately they left Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale alone.
Thank you, Mark, this was delightful! I'm going to be watching for your name on the Queen's New Years Honors list. Merry Christmas to you and all your loved ones! Merry Christmas to all Mark Steyn club members, too!
Thanks for presenting a reading of A Child's Christmas in Wales.
This is one of my favorites. I have an old LP recording of Dylan Thomas reading it that I play every year at this time. It has become a family tradition.
Thanks for thinking of it, and a Merry Christmas to you.
Victor M.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch
I don't know anybody who isn't Welsh who can handle those vowels. And consonants.
That was wonderful. Thank you very much and Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Lovely!
Merry Christmas to you Mark, your family and staff and to all Club Members and Steyn fans near and far!
Very nice. Thank you, Mark, and Merry Christmas to all.
PS- Are you back in the old/new studio once again?