Tuesday 13 April 2010

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Edward Thomas Fellowship

Below are details of two literary events near
Swindon, on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th May. They are open to anyone.

As perhaps these will be of interest to members
of the Walter de la Mare Society, I wonder if you
would be so kind as to pass on the essential
details to them. I can provide high-resolution or
website-friendly digital photographs of Edward Thomas if required.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Haggerty,
Edward Thomas Fellowship.


Programme for the Study-day

Fields of Vision: an informal study-day devoted
to the lives and writings of Richard Jefferies and Edward Thomas
Saturday 8th May 2010, Liddington, Wiltshire

This study-day is a collaboration between the
Edward Thomas Fellowship and the Richard
Jefferies Society. It will examine both writers,
particularly their shared interests and concerns,
and the Wiltshire landscape that they both knew and wrote about.

Jem Poster, the distinguished poet, novelist and
literary scholar, who is currently preparing a
new edition of Richard Jefferies: His Life and
Work by Edward Thomas for Oxford University
Press, will be the keynote speaker. His lecture
is entitled 'First Known When Lost: Edward
Thomas, Richard Jefferies, and the Rural World'.
There will also be talks by Richard Emeny
(Chairman of the Edward Thomas Fellowship, who
has written and lectured prolifically on Thomas
and various related authors) and Terry Lloyd (a
Swindonian, and since childhood an enthusiast for
the works of Thomas and Jefferies, who has
thoroughly explored their landscapes on foot).

This event will be held in Liddington Village
Hall, from 10.30 to 4.30. Participants may bring
a packed lunch or eat in the Village Inn nearby.
During lunchtime, publications and other
merchandise from the Edward Thomas Fellowship and
the Richard Jefferies Society will be offered for
sale in the Village Hall, where there will
probably also be a second-hand book stall.

Places at the study-day cost £15 (£5 for students
and unemployed people), which include
refreshments but not lunch. Bookings must be made
before 1st May. A booking-form can be downloaded
from the Fellowship's website at .

At the end of the afternoon, there will be an
opportunity, using car-share, to visit St James's
Church at Eastbury, Berkshire, which features an
impressive engraved-glass window by Laurence
Whistler, commemorating Edward and Helen Thomas,
and where Helen is buried in the churchyard.

For more information about the study-day, contact
its co-ordinator, Martin Haggerty:
or 01723 - 37 55 33.

_____________________________________________

In the Footsteps of Richard Jefferies
Sunday 9th May 2010, Coate, near Swindon, Wiltshire

Andrew Rossabi, a former President of the Richard
Jefferies Society, who has written introductions
to several new imprints of Jefferies' works and
is currently working on a new biography of this
writer, will lead a guided walk (with readings)
along the east side of Coate Water, over Cicely’s
Bridge, to the Gamekeeper’s Cottage at Hodson,
where walkers may look around the garden and view
the old thatched cottage, as well as the
bluebells in Hodson Woods. The return route takes
in the west side of Coate Water, where a picnic
lunch may be eaten (alternatively eat at the Sun
Inn, Coate). In the afternoon, until 4.30 pm,
everyone will be welcome to explore Richard
Jefferies' home, watch the film Jefferies Land,
and share readings from Edward Thomas's and Jefferies' works.

This event is free and no prior booking is
required. Gather at the Richard Jefferies Museum, Coate, for a 10.30 start.


Edward Thomas Fellowship
Visit our website at www.edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk

The Dawn

I was trying to find the rest of this poem on various poetry searches.

It is the first lines of a poem called The Dawn by Walter de la Mare but I could not find it.

Eventually I found the book that I had remembered it from. Do you know of it?



“One after other break the birds

From motionless bush and tree

Into a strange and drowsy praise,

The flush of dawn to see.”



First of six verses.

Laurence Smith