Exploring the short creative life of Alun Lewis

7digital’s new audio documentary explores the life and work of Welsh war poet Alun Lewis.

‘Postscript for Alun’, made for BBC Radio Wales by producer Mollie Davidson, comes 80 years after Lewis’ tragic death in Burma during World War II.

Regarded as one of Britain’s finest war poets, his brief life left a legacy of work that captured the solitude and desolation of war, Welsh identity and experiences of love. The cause of his death while serving in Burma, aged 28, is still unclear.

Casi Wyn traces Alun Lewis’ literary evolution from his youth beside the South Wales coalfields, his admiration of Edward Thomas and the experience of being a pacifist soldier. His lasting contributions to literature extended to poetry, letters and short-story collections.

Listen on BBC Sounds, now.

Casi is a Welsh singer and composer who held the role of Wales’ Youth Poet Laureate for two years. Her works have been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and most recently Sinfonia Cymru.

Thanks to David and Jane Ellis, Mick Felton, John Pikoulis, Cary Archard, Roy Noble, Seren Press, National Library of Wales, Zoe Brigley and Poetry Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf Libraries Digital Service and their archive, Cynon Valley Museum, The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The National Archives, Julia Forster and Simon Thirsk.

Thanks to Torsten Rasch for sharing his archive audio of Gweno Lewis.

Alun Lewis Collected Poems, edited by Cary Archard and published by Seren Press was the reference publication for this project.

Diolch, Alun.

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