Today’s poetry news roundup looks at the poet on a banknote and the portrait of Dylan Thomas that has returned to Wales.

New Scottish Bank Note Revealed

The new £50 polymer note was recently revealed by the Bank of Scotland. The new design features one difference that is immediately noticeable and that is that instead of the green colour that people are so familiar with the polymer note is red.

The note forms part of the 2007 Bridges Series from the bank. The £5, £10 and £20 polymer notes have already been released. The £100 note will be issued in due course.

Similar to the paper note of the same denomination, the polymer note features a portrait of Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish poet and novelist near to the mount – the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland. The reverse of the note features an image of a boat “bridge” the Falkirk Wheel, the only rotating boat lift in the world.

There is also a picture of two 300-ton horse’s heads which represent the Kelpies a mythological water spirit. Their image has been included to indicate the contribution that horses have had to Scottish history.

There is a new feature on the note, and this is an ultraviolet one which shows parts of Steam Barge, a poem by William Muir. The poem was written after the poet had first witnessed a new steamboat on the Grand Canal in Scotland.

Painting of Dylan Thomas Snapped Up

One of the last portraits of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas has been snapped up by the council in Carmarthenshire.

The painting is the work of Gordon Stuart, and was painted at the poets home in 1953 just two months before his death.

The council purchased the portrait for its museum service, CofGâr, who took delivery of it following the sale. The portrait had been part of the private collection of the painter until his death in 2015. It has only ever been seen twice by the public, once at the 1954 National Eisteddfod and then 60 years later when it was displayed in the poet’s childhood home.

Dylan Thomas is widely regarded as one of the most significant Welsh writers of the 20^th Century.

The painting was purchase at auction in April, it fetched £15,000 and was partly funded by contributions from the National Lottery, the Arts Fund and the Arts Council of England. Later this year the painting will be put in pride of place in the Carmarthenshire Museum in its new gallery, it will however first undergo and professional conservation procedure.

It is also planned that the painting will go on a tour which will see it housed at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse as well as a number of other regional venues before it returns to the museum which will be its permanent home.

As the last portrait that was painted of Thomas before his rather untimely death, the council are delighted to have been given the opportunity to bring it back to Wales.