D. M. Thomas

Bran Nicol (University of Surrey)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Dates

Born 27 Jan 1935
Died 26 Mar 2023
Activity 1964-2022

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Poet

Other

Autobiographer
Biographer
Teacher/ Professor
Translator

Resources

D.M. Thomas was born in 1935 in Redruth in Cornwall, the part of England he described in the biographical note to his first major publication as “the sadly haunting, wrecked tin-mining area of West Cornwall, its symbol the square ugly granite harmony-filled Wesleyan chapel”. This suggests two of the crucial factors in his upbringing: his tin-mining ancestry, which is often explored in his poetry, and the Methodist values instilled in him by his parents. A third significant factor is Cornwall's separate status in England, isolated geographically on England's extreme south-west coast and in a strange position culturally, too—a Celtic region in England. Thomas occupies a position as an “outsider” in the English novel, and his work has always been more enthusiastically received in Europe and the United States. Characteristic features of Celtic literature, such as...

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1935 words

Citation: Nicol, Bran. "D. M. Thomas". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4370, accessed 05 December 2025.]