(For Wales)
S.B. from Cardiff

(Oscar Wilde)
Read by CECIL LEWIS
WE have all heard stories of Oscar Wilde 's brilliance as a talker, and his gift of epigram, of which we may have failed to find adequate evidence in his works. Another of his talents was that of improvisation, and many of his Prose Poems came into being originally in this way. The time when he was writing ' The Fisherman and his Soul' is said to have been the happiest in his life; he would sit and tell the story over and over again with innumerable variations, many of which do not appear in the final version. Nevertheless, the story as we have it is an exquisite piece of ornate and highly stylized writing, myth-like in conception and perfect in execution. Unfortunately, it is too long to be given in its entirety tonight, but the abridgments have been done in such a way that the sense and mood of the original have been fully preserved.
(10.0 Time Signal)