Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This report is taken from PN Review 114, Volume 23 Number 4, March - April 1997.

Letter from Wales Sam Adams

On 21 September, the Welsh Academy celebrated the seventieth birthday of Raymond Garlick. The venue was Trinity College, Carmarthen, where for many congenial years Raymond taught, first within the English Department and later as lecturer in charge of Welsh Studies, a course of his own devising, which, uniquely at the time, offered students in higher education a substantial experience of Anglo-Welsh literature. The celebration was a modest affair, but full of warmth and affection. It fitted the man, whose courtesy, gentleness, soft-spoken eloquence and love of literature inspired generations of students. I once sat mesmerised by a talk he gave to a group of sixth formers who were setting out from the college to explore locations in the neighbourhood - notably Fern Hill and Laugharne - associated with Dylan Thomas. He had a similar effect year after year on the trainee teachers and students from Iowa participating in the college's American Programme who were his regular audience. His gentleness is not of the namby-pamby sort. Raymond Garlick is acutely discriminating and tenacious in argument. As one who, virtually throughout his life, has struggled to overcome physical disability and set the highest standards for himself, he has little time for those who lack industry and grit. Like his good friend Tony Conran, he is a pacifist of the kind that does not back away from confrontation but strenuously opposes colonialism and bullying, large-scale or small.

There is every reason for celebrating the life of a gifted teacher (it ...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image