MPH 2008

Your last chance to get tickets

Navigation - link to other main sections from here

Skip Navigation

From The Times
April 15, 2004

Lottery grant for the poet whose muse is booze

By Robin Young
A WELSH poet who stands — or sometimes falls — in a long and not always honourable tradition among his compatriots has been given £2,500 of lottery money to get drunk.

Karl Beer, 27, from Port Talbot, who writes poems about getting “blind drunk”, intends to write a book about his drinking experiences and the grant will go on “research”.

He said yesterday: “Some of the stuff is going to be quite shocking. My work is about going out and getting completely wrecked, but it is aimed at the 18 to 30 age group and I’m hoping to make people laugh.”

The line of drunken Welsh poets can be traced back to Goronwy Owen, whose drunken escapades and profligacy set a benchmark in the 18th century. Owen’s best known modern successor is, of course, Dylan Thomas who died of alcohol poisoning in November 1953. His reported last words were: “I have just had 18 double whiskys in a row. I do believe that’s a record.”

Mr Beer’s hand-out from the Millennium Commission caused some anger in his home town yesterday. The chairman of the Chamber of Trade, Gerald Harris, called it a “waste”, pointing out that a lottery grant for a sports pavilion had been cut by £87,000.

The Millennium Commission said: “Mr Beer’s project was to work with excluded groups in the community including young offenders and that is what we are funding him for.”

Also in UK News

Also in News

Comment    

Libby Purves Columnist

open quote mark We run down British naval power at our peril. Without it we would have little food, fuel, goods - or safety close quote mark

More...
Libby Purves

Pictures of the Week

Folk dancers perform during the annual Dasara procession held at the Mysore Palace during the ’Vijaya Dashami’ celebrations in Mysore

A selection of the best images from around the world

Slide Show

Endangered species

Iberian Lynx

The Red list reveals that a quarter of world's mammals are now at risk of extinction

Slide Show

Comment Central

Brokers react at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany

Baffled by the banks?

Top ten blogs to help you make sense of the crisis

    Money Central

    Piggy bank

    The six safest places to store your savings

      School Gate

      10 year old girls do their homework

      Why too much homework doesn't work

      Most Read

      Skip Most Read

      Today

      MOST COMMENTED

      Skip Editor's Pick

      Today

      MOST CURIOUS

      Skip Most Curious

      Today

      Focus Zone

      Purasia

      Asian Cuisine:

      Explore your passion for food with the delights of Thai, Indian & Chinese cooking

      A life more streamlined

      A Life More Streamlined:

      In our new series, Tony Hawks takes a dry, wry look at modern life - junk mail, interminable meetings and snooty sales assistants

      swimmer

      Triathlon Training:

      Read the training tips and advice that helped our London Triathletes

      Daniel Craig

      James Bond:

      Read our exclusive 100 Years of Fleming and Bond interactive timeline, packed with original Times articles and reviews

      ba business travel clouds

      Business Travel:

      The latest travel news plus the best hotels and gadgets for business travellers

      previous next
      Peter Sands...CEO...Standard Chartered.

      Andrew Davidson meets Peter Sands

      Services

      Croatia

      Croatia 8 days from £659

      Dubrovnik, the Dalmatian Coast and Montenegro

      Credit Crunched?

      Our Credit Clinic has free help and advice

      The Singapore skyline pictured at night

      Business City Guides

      Overseas contacts and local business information

      Popular Searches on Times Online

      best councils | books | chess | credit crunch | currency converter | fashion | football | formula 1 | london film festival | mortgages | pensions | podcasts | property | recipes | redundancy calculator | sudoku | wall street | wine

      Shortcuts to help you find sections and articles

      Classifieds 

      Cars

      Skip Cars of the Week

      BMW BMW 4.0 M3

      2008
      £39,937

      Car insurance

      Great car insurance deals online


      Jobs

      Skip Jobs of the Week
      CHIEF EXECUTIVE

      c.£75,000
      GlosFirstmeansbusiness
      Gloucestershire

      Collaboration Support Managers

      £32,795 - £41,545
      Universitry of Southampton
      Southampton

      Bid Managers

      £ £32,795 - £41,545
      Universitry of Southampton
      Southampton

      Demand Forecasting Managers

      Competitive Package
      Npower
      West Midlands

      Properties

      Wandsworth Town

      1 & 2 Bed apartments
      From £249,995

      The First Group

      Great Dubai Investment Opportunities
      from £89,950

      One Housing Group

      low-cost ownership homes in London

      Holidays

      Skip Travel of the Week

      Funway Holidays Int Inc

      Las Vegas SALE!
      £POA

      Discover Captain Cook’s Hawaiian Islands

      With Ramblers Worldwide Holidays!
      £POA

      Advertise your holiday property online

      List your property with two leading travel websites
      £POA

      Travel insurance

      Great travel insurance deals online


      Place your advert now