In the week that John Peter Rhys Williams was born, his hometown of Bridgend played host to an Egyptian performer named Kitao who styled himself as ‘the man they could not kill’.
Chris Williams, writing in the book More Heart and Soul, says of the visitor: “He swallowed fire, washed in broken glass, survived attempts by 12 men to strangle him with a noose, and allowed swords to pass through his body.
“The highlight of his act was to lie on a bed of nails whilst six men stood on him and broke large rocks on his chest with a sledgehammer.”
