Book description
These poetic and highly personal pieces describe Edward Thomas's
wanderings through the English countryside, taking in meadows, farms,
inns, maypoles, churches and wildlife. Whether exploring the Kent
weald or the heart of England, describing a crisp winter morning or a
heady August day, evoking the scent of honeysuckle or the primeval
atmosphere of an ancient wood, Thomas brings the countryside alive
through precise observation and vivid, lyrical prose.
Generations of inhabitants have helped shape the English
countryside - but it has profoundly shaped us too. It has provoked a
huge variety of responses from artists, writers, musicians and
people who live and work on the land - as well as those who are
travelling through it. English Journeys celebrates this long
tradition with a series of twenty books on all aspects of the
countryside, from stargazey pie and country churches, to man's
relationship with nature and songs celebrating the patterns of the
countryside (as well as ghosts and love-struck soldiers).
Edward Thomas
(1878-1917) was an English poet, journalist and essayist. He made his
living writing prose for many years, until he was encouraged to compose
verse by the American poet Robert Frost. This led to a prolific outburst
of extraordinary poetry, which was brought to a tragic end when Thomas
was killed in the First World War.
