“That cruel giggle is the thing I best remember about him. He told me how as a boy he delighted in tearing the wings off flies. I said it must be a difficult thing to do. Dylan replied, ‘Maybe I only imagined it but it was what I wanted to do.’ He also told me this story. At one time he shared a room in London with a poor Welsh student whose only means of support was £3 a week from his parents which arrived in a registered letter every Friday. One Friday Dylan came home first. He had no money and wanted a drink. So he opened the envelope, meaning to take only one pound. By the time the evening was over he had spent the lot. I asked, ‘And what did your friend live on until the next remittance arrived?’ Dylan replied, ‘He, he. He starved.’ Dylan was very proud of this story.

I disliked Dylan Thomas intensely.”

A J P Taylor A Personal History 1983 p130