There are so many books to choose from, over so many years. There is a BBC radio programme called “Desert Island Discs” which has been running since 1942 (!) where each week a well-known figure is invited to imagine they are on a desert island with a record player and six or seven records they can take with them. In 1951 the „castaway” was also asked what luxury and book they would like to take. Every castaway was automatically given a copy of the complete Shakespeare and the Bible – the Bible was supposed to have been left there by the Gideon Society.

So for my own choice I would like to dispense with Shakespeare: I have already read all of them, I’ve seen several stage versions and I am currently screening film versions of all of them so that will probably be enough for the rest of my life. The Bible option seems hardly appropriate in this day and age: I would insist upon a full library containing all religions and philosophies.

That narrows things down. The next, very hard decision is whether to go for a book that has been extremely instrumental in my professional life, or something “purely for pleasure”. In the end I opted for Dylan Thomas’s “Under Milk Wood”, the first ever purpose-written, commissioned, radio play. I have performed in this play twice, I have composed tunes for the songs in it, I have read it, seen the film, and used it many times in my lessons even though I am not primarily a lecturer in literature. I have visited Thomas’s boathouse in Laugharne where he spent the last four years of his life and I have drunk a pint of Felinfoel while sitting in his chair at “The Browns” hotel, his favourite pub whose telephone number he gave as his own. In short, I am hooked on Dylan Thomas. (I also have a special place in my heart for Wales and the Welsh”.

Dylan Thomas(1914-1953)spoke no Welsh, but he could make English sound about as Welsh as it gets. And that means turning prose into music. There is a cliché phrase, “The Welsh are a mu-sical nation”, but like all clichés, there is a lot of truth in it. Just go to a Welsh rugby match and enjoy the only environment where tens of thousands of men sing not only in tune, but in improvised part harmony. Wales has given to the operatic baritone Sir Geraint Evans and the pop star Tom Jones… and the deliciously named Organ Morgan, the fanatical church organist of Llareggub (“bugger all”, backwards) in “Under Milk Wood”. And the Reverend Eli Jenkins, who recites his own poetry every morningat his open window. And Polly Garter, who sings of her lost love as she scrubs the floor. So yes, if it has to be one book only, it will have to be “Under Milk Wood”. But I’ll need lots of other ones just behind it.

A könyvajánló a PTE Egyetemi Könyvtára által a Dél-dunántúli Regionális Könyvtár és Tudásközpontban 2014. november 19-én szerda, 15 órakor megnyílt "MindenKép(p)en Olvasunk!" című olvasást népszerűsítő fotókiállításra készült!

(Forrás: Dr. Rouse, Andrew Clifford habilitált egyetemi docens PTE BTK Angol Nyelvű Irodalmak és Kultúrák Tanszéke)