A dream came true after a long-delayed return to Tenby.

Last week, a writer and performer from Sussex drove down to Manorbier on holiday with his wife and dog. Nothing exceptional in that, except that, in visiting Tenby, he was fulfilling a dream of some 55 years’ vintage.

Robert Cohen, a playwright whose debut novel ‘Architecture for Beginners’ is available now from Hobart Books, explained:

“My mum grew up in Llanelli. On a visit to my grandparents back in 1968, during a brief trip back from our then residence in America, we went to Tenby. 

“Clearly I loved the place, for when we returned the following year, I lobbied for another visit. Thus we set out one day to have a picnic in Tenby, only to be thwarted by my infant brother, who set to wailing from the moment we got in the car. In the end, the noise became so unbearable that I agreed to abandon the mission and have the picnic in a field by the side of the road. So, I never made it back to Tenby – at least, not till last week.” 

“I was relieved and delighted to find that the town is every bit as lovely as my personal mythology had built it up to be,” he added.

As an actor Mr Cohen has recently played a famous son of Tenby. At the Brighton Fringe he was in a play called ‘Who Is Number One?’, about the making of the cult ’60s TV show The Prisoner. Among the several characters he essayed was Tenby’s own Kenneth Griffith.

Production shot showing Robert Cohen as son of Tenby Kenneth Griffith dressed as the judge in the Prisoner
Production shot showing Robert Cohen as son of Tenby Kenneth Griffith dressed as the judge in the Prisoner. (Pic supplied)

Robert Cohen’s play The Ragged Regiment, won the Constance Cox Playwriting Prize. To find out more, visit the website, www.robertcohen.weebly.com.