Body Beautiful is a collection of poetry exploring the unexpected challenges that life can bring and the main theme is of how to take on adversity. Described as ‘his most stern and introspective work to date’, the collection is centred around the author’s battle with prostrate cancer and deals with his journey from his diagnosis through to his successful recovery.

Although the poetry is often sobering, stern and occasionally bleak, they frequently display Thomas’s characteristic humour and irony. It is introspective, emotional and humorous. Beginning as a journal about his experiences of suffering from cancer, Body Beautiful was not intended to be a book of poetry. However, Thomas believed that his poetry could be of benefit to other men suffering from prostrate cancer and could help raise awareness of the condition.

‘In Ifor Thomas we have a real 21st Century voice; a voice that can make itself heard above the roar of traffic and the voices of kids as they come out of school. Ifor’s is the kind of poetic voice we need in these loud times. Listen to it. Listen to it now.’ - Ian MacMillan