DYLAN called it his ‘ugly, lovely, town',” Pat tells me in her sonorous South Wales lilt, “and from here you can see why.”

We are standing on Mount Pleasant, a hill overlooking a Victorian cityscape reshaped by the Blitz and 1970s concrete. Despite the attentions of the Luftwaffe and myopic town planners, Swansea's soul is intact, bustling to the musical chatter of a people immortalised in the poetry of its greatest son: Dylan Thomas.

Like a doomed 1960s rock star, Thomas's artistic brilliance, booze-sodden life and early death at the age of 39 continue to fuel the public's fascination with him. This Friday a Hollywood biopic on the poet, The Edge of Love, starring Matthew Rhys, Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley, goes on release in the UK.

Pat Hughes is my guide to Wales's most famous son, and to the city where he grew up. She is a walking one-woman show of Thomas fact, folklore and off-the-cuff recitals, and was appointed an MBE for her efforts. She will take you to the house where he grew up (5, Cwmdonkin Drive), the pub where he discovered the “bright, brass depths” of beer (Uplands Tavern) and around a city that champions its wayward son with monuments, theatres, a festival and the Dylan Thomas Centre, which houses a permament exhibition.

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Thomas left Swansea aged 20, but later returned to Wales with his wife, Caitlin, to write. Two places, in particular, inspired his masterpiece, Under Milk Wood, a “play for voices” set in a seaside town called Llareggub (“bugger all” spelt backwards.)

Thomas and Caitlin were conspicuous characters in the quiet fishing village of New Quay on the Cambrian coast, where they lived in 1944 and 1945. New Quay today is still an old-fashioned bucket-and-spade town of whitewashed Gwely y Brecwast (bed and breakfast) houses. Dylan's main watering hole, the Black Lion Hotel, bears a quote from Under Milk Wood: “Time passes. Listen. Time Passes.” In New Quay, I'm not sure that it does.

If one place captures the soul of Dylan more than anywhere else, it must be “the timeless, beautiful, barmy (both spellings)” village of Laugharne, in southern Carmarthenshire - the other main inspiration for Llareggub. Thomas joked that he got off the bus here, and forgot to get back on. It's not difficult to see why: a writer could not wish for a more romantic and inspiring setting.

Thomas loved his Laugharne boathouse, which he called a “seashaken house on a breakneck of rocks”. The boathouse is a museum now, preserved as it was in the poet's time. Exhibits bring his life and the period vividly to life.

Thomas lived in Laugharne from 1949 until his death four years later. His body was flown back from New York, where he died after a whisky binge during a lecture tour, for burial in Laugharne's parish church.

A simple white cross stands at the centre of the graveyard. Pilgrims bring tributes, from a white plastic toy horse to an empty whisky bottle. Dylan Thomas is here in spirit.

NEED TO KNOW

Stay Morgans (0800 988 3001, www.morganshotel.co.uk) near the port in Swansea. Doubles from £80. Ty Mawr Mansion and Country House (01570 470033, www.tymawrmansion.co.uk) in Aeron Valley, where stars from the film stayed. A two-night B&B “Edge of Love” package is £380.

Hurst House on the Marsh (01994 427417, www.hurst-house.co.uk) in Laugharne; doubles from £235. Dylan Thomas Trail: Pat Hughes (01792 202208, patmerlyn1@ yahoo.co.uk) offers tours of Swansea and Laugharne from £25 to £175. Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea (01792 463980, www.dylanthomas.com).

Dylan Thomas Boathouse at Laugharne (01994 427420, www.dylanthomasboathouse.com).

Information Welsh Tourist Board (www.wales.gov.uk/tourism)