Publishing my Edward Thomas

  Writing the blurb(2)

 

Only a few days and emails later the blurb text seemed to be taking shape.

Here is a little general advice on their writing, though nothing makes it easy.

Frank: ' the aim of it is to give a more objective  impression of the book, opening it up as clearly as possible to a reasonably wide range of readers. '

 Writer's and artist's year book: ' {It} should not retell the story or give away the plot; rather it should send signals that convey atmosphere, whet the appetite of the reader and show what kind of book they can expect.'

 The Hanger path, site of 'The Tale'

 Third blurb attempt:

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

Yet following the outbreak of the First World War he begins writing poetry after a lifetime of prose, and the shade starts to lift. But Helen struggles to accept his close friendship with the charismatic American poet, Robert Frost and the changes that war brings.

 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.


The Harrow Inn, Steep
Mr Coffin was landlord.

 
Fourth and maybe final version

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

 Following the outbreak of the First World War, he began to write the poetry that would live on after his death and to escape the melancholy he had experienced throughout his life.

This poignant novel, told from his viewpoint and that of his loyal wife, Helen, explores their complex relationship and the tensions within it.

Both of them struggle with the changes that the war brings, as well as with Edward's personal sense of patriotism and his close friendship with the charismatic American poet, Robert Frost.

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.
 

 

 

from Thomas's study, Steep.

 

 

A Tale - two versions.

      - 'Outside the old ruined cottage is periwinkle and when that is not flowering there is some blue and white china peering among the leaves.'

Here once flint walls,

Pump, orchard and wood pile stood.

Blue periwinkle crawls

From the lost garden down into the wood.

 

The flowerless hours

Of Winter cannot prevail

To blight those other flowers,

Blue china fragments scattered, that tell the tale.

      

                                                           *     *    *

There once the walls

Of the ruined cottage stood.

The periwinkle crawls

With flowers in its hair  into the wood.

 

In flowerless hours

Never will the bank fail,

With everlasting flowers

On fragments of blue plates, to tell the tale. 

Edna Longley used the second, but put the first in her notes. Which do you prefer? By the way, the fragments of  plate can still be found.