Obit in the Times for Byron Rogers, who wrote two of the best biographies I have ever read, on RS Thomas and JL Carr. He also wrote an autobiography - Me -with the most unforgettable opening incident I have ever read. If you know you know. RIP.
Replies
Agree, the J. L. Carr biography is a wonderful book. I also read the Thomas biog, a poet i have no love at all for, but nevertheless... not read 'Me' but will look it out.
sep 1, 2025, 9:29 am • 2 0 • view
Oh no! What a writer - Me is like nothing else.
sep 1, 2025, 9:12 am • 1 0 • view
I know. That whole Prince Charles section eh? Died on August 3rd apparently. He should not go unmourned.
sep 1, 2025, 9:14 am • 2 0 • view
Absolutely. The Telegraph (sorry) obit is glorious, too - published last week.
sep 1, 2025, 9:24 am • 1 0 • view
Just read the Telegraph obit. "Byron Davies Rogers was born on April 5 1942 at his parents’ home near the village of Bancyfelin, outside Carmarthen, into “a family noted for two things: one was illegitimacy, the other was farting.” more to come...
sep 1, 2025, 8:03 pm • 4 0 • view
His interviewees included... the peppery historian AL Rowse, who asked him whether he was “a hetero” and received an affirmative answer. “‘Knew it, knew it,’ he said triumphantly. ‘Knew you were heterosexual as soon as you scuffed my mat, and didn’t straighten it.’”......
sep 1, 2025, 8:05 pm • 4 0 • view
“Compared with the mothers of west Wales, the most implacable intelligence gathering set-up ever known, the members of the old KGB were amateurs. The accused could not have done what they were charged with for one simple reason: someone, somewhere, sometime, would have seen them doing it.”
sep 1, 2025, 8:07 pm • 5 1 • view
Thats blown my view of Rowse
sep 1, 2025, 8:10 pm • 1 0 • view