It is a moonless spring night in the Welsh fishing town of Llareggub, and all its inhabitants are asleep. As if by incantation, their dreams become audible, and a concert of voices arises. Captain Cat, the blind retired sailor, reminisces about his time on the sea and his drowned shipmates. Mrs Ogmore-Pritchard henpecks her two late husbands, while the organist Organ Morgan harps on about music. As the sleepers awaken and get on with their daily routines, their dreams are reflected by reality, their inner thoughts and feelings by action, and a poignant, lyrical and at times humorous portrait emerges of a small community grappling with the thorns of life.

A triumph of oral storytelling, Under Milk Wood was completed shortly before the author’s death and first broadcast by BBC radio in January 1954, with the first words of the play famously recited by a young Richard Burton. Universally regarded as Dylan Thomas’s crowning prose achievement, it is accompanied here by two other radio scripts, Return Journey and Conversation about Christmas, both dating from 1947.

Noted for his original rhythmic style and inventive use of words and imagery, the Welsh poet dylan thomas (1914–53) is remembered today for a large body of poems – among them ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’ and ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’ – a play for voices (Under Milk Wood) and a collection of short stories (Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog).