Bereavement
Thomas moved to the News Chronicle in 1937 as chief leader writer, finding the time to write a biography of Welsh industrialist David Davies which was published the following year. However, tragedy struck with the death of his wife in childbirth in the same year. Thomas' reaction was to write "Dilysia", a threnody which combined his increasing love of Italian literature (especially Dante) with a Christian philosophical analysis of suffering and bereavement. In later life Thomas was to identify it as his favourite piece of writing, and it was republished in 1987. Thomas needed only four hours sleep, and kept volumes of Dante in the original mediaeval Italian by his bedside to read at night.
Read more about this topic: Ivor Bulmer-Thomas