Dylan Thomas love letter sold

A PASSIONATE love letter from poet Dylan Thomas to his then fiancee Caitlin Macnamara sold for more than €10,000 at auction yesterday.

The two-page hand-written note is signed with seven kisses and a postscript from the heavy drinker which reads “I have to be abstemious.”

The letter was the last written by Thomas to Caitlin before they were married on July 11, 1937.

It was written after an apparent quarrel, but Thomas tells Caitlin he “loves her terribly”, and says it is “nonsense me living without you, you without me.”

He writes: “When you’re away from me, it’s absolutely a physical removal, unsupportable and irreparable (sic). I love you, I can’t tell you how much, I miss you until it hurts me terribly.”

Thomas, who had been ill, adds: “Come and see me quickly, now, with some gooseberries and kisses for me. I’m not dying now, much. Can you telephone here?”

Dylan Thomas died in New York in November 1953, after famously declaring: “I’ve had 18 straight whiskies. I think it’s a record.”

Caitlin died in Italy in 1994.