Publishing my Edward Thomas

Edward Thomas's Birthday, the Fellowship Walk.      

                                              

Memorial stone, Shoulder of Mutton Hill

At Steep, 1914.

Each year, on the Sunday nearest to Edward Thomas's birthday (3rd March), the E.T  Fellowship organises a walk with readings in appropriate places, in the countryside near his home at Steep, Hampshire. This event is the main annual gathering for Fellowship members.

There is time to contact the Fellowship membership secretary via the website, www.edwardthomasfellowship.org.uk if you would like to be part of it. I was asked by Richard Emeney, the chairman, to bring some volumes of 'A Conscious Englishman'along  to sell over the lunch break, so I made a sheet of information to go with them.


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   A Conscious Englishman, by Margaret Keeping, published February 2013, £9.99.

                                        info@streetbooks.co.uk, www.streetbooks.co.uk     07967 246482

                                            £7.99 to Edward Thomas Fellowship members.

 

‘Did anyone ever begin to be a poet at thirty-six in the shade?’ Edward Thomas asks.

Following the outbreak of the First World War he does begin to write poetry after a lifetime of prose, and his self-doubt and melancholy starts to lift, helped by his close friendship with the American poet, Robert Frost.

This poignant novel tells the story of the last years of the poet’s life. Told from the point of view of both Edward and his loyal wife Helen, it shows his wrestling with words along with marriage, children, the perpetual lack of money, and eventually with his conscience.

 

Inspired by Edward and Helen’s writings, the novel is set against the beautifully evoked landscapes of Gloucestershire and Hampshire that offer the couple only partial peace.

Reviews and readers'comments:

 '[Margaret Keeping's] writing is very assured and she has the necessary eye for place, detail, weather and seasons to write about Edward Thomas...I hope the book will reach the wide audience it deserves and feel sure that many others will enjoy it as much as I have.' Linda Newbery, Costa prize judge, author of Set in Stone.

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 'An absorbing book...This novel is very good on the influences behind the wonderful poetry.' Merryn Williams, The Oxford Times.

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‘I've enjoyed reading the semi-fictional account of E.T.'s final years. I've been collecting Thomas's books since I was in the 6th form, and have almost a complete collection, and so I know a great deal about his life from the different biographies and collections of letters and memoirs.{On ‘Dark Earth/Light Sky’} Margaret Keeping's portrayal was more faithful and sensitive to the actual events. A Conscious Englishman' gains from the different narrative voices and perspectives, and includes many direct as well as oblique references to real events and to ET's writings. In particular the sections from Edward's consciousness are well-written and intelligently shaped.’ Yorkshireman.
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I loved this book. As an Edward Thomas fan it is a wonderful read. I was very engrossed in the portrayal of the relationship between a wife who loves too much, and her depressive, often tormented, writer husband. How difficult for poor Helen Thomas - her narrative is in the 1st person and the wife's point of view is refreshingly - and sympathetically portrayed. Thomas' tentative steps towards becoming a poet are deftly imagined, as are his discussions with Robert Frost.
Margaret Keeping evocatively describes the landscape, people and places of the time so that you almost feel that you are there. She depicts the relentless encroachment on the lives of the characters of the First World War, which is the sinister backdrop framing the novel. Despite knowing what fate would befall Edward Thomas - as a reader I had become so involved with the characters that I found the conclusion of the novel unbearably poignant.                                        I. Sansom
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I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who has read any of the poetry of the period and wondered about the creative process and the experience of War. Edward Thomas is dealt with sympathetically, but without diminishing the impact that his troubled soul had on those closest to him. The book is indeed interspersed with chapters narrated from his wife Helen's point of view, which works very well in conveying for example how she would have felt about the great influence that Robert Frost had on him, and his very close relationships with other women. Also, the actual process of becoming a poet is dealt with so well, perhaps the author has been able to translate her own experience of becoming a novelist into a fictional form. I certainly look forward to seeing more from her.                                                                                                 Phil Barber.

                                                           

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                                                  Poem:  March the Third.

   'As a birthday poem written shortly before Easter, March the Third subverts Christian celebration by making 'holy' and 'wild' interchangeable. A draft of lines 15-16 likens the birds' songs to canticles. Thomas was dissatisfied with the poem:"Perhaps I shall be able to mend March the Third. I know it must either  be mended or ended." ' Edna Longley.
There is another March poem which I'll save for March 1st.

Here again (she said) is March the third
And twelve hours singing for the bird
'Twixt dawn and dusk, from half past six
To half past six, never unheard.

'Tis Sunday, and the church-bells end
When the birds do. I think they blend
Now better than they will when passed
Is this unnamed, unmarked godsend.

Or do all mark, and none dares say,
How it may shift and long delay,
Somewhere before the first of Spring,
But never fails, this singing day?

And when it falls on Sunday, bells
Are a wild natural voice that dwells
On hillsides; but the birds' songs have
The holiness gone from the bells.

This day unpromised is more dear
Than all the named days of the year
When seasonable sweets come in,
Because we know how lucky we are.

 

It does fall on a Sunday this year. It's rather intriguing that the 3rd March, unnamed -  he means in the Christian calendar -  is the  big day for Edward Thomas enthusiasts, pagans, Christians, of  any or no faith at all.