Edward Thomas

[parky]

Thanks for including Adlestrop in your recent entry Andy. I studied Edward Thomas as part of my English A' Level and reading it takes me back.

Back then I had a big potato on my shoulder about literature, and poetry and could never understand why we couldn't study stuff that was more relevant, less high brow and maybe less snobbish.

Consequently I hated all that stuff and loved Stephen King (still do actually and think he's a better writer than some people give him credit for, just because he writes genre fiction doesn't mean his perception of human beings is not acute but thats another thing), however its only as I matured (like a good cheese perhaps?) that I realised just how good all that stuff is (such as Austen, Hardy, Dickens (just love Dickens!)), but I never revisited Edward Thomas.

Maybe I will now.

Cheers

[El Gordo]

Hi Parky - good message. I never really studied Edward Thomas but we had a fearsome English teacher who spent a whole lesson talking about Adlestrop, and it's remained in my subconscious ever since.

As you might have gathered if you've been around for a while, I have a thing about the First World War. There's something poignant about the thought of Thomas writing a piece of verse like that while cowering in a bunker at Ypres, waiting for his rendezvous with death. (By the way, I dscovered recently that there's a marathon in Flanders every year...)

Something I decided to edit out of that entry was the detailed story of our visit to Lanhydrock. Like most NT houses, it's essentially the story of a family. This (mainly) happy one ended with the death of the eldest son at Loos in 1916. Horribly sad. I decided it wouldn't interest people, so got rid of it.

Interesting what you say about Steven King, as he is also quoted several times in that entry. I'm sure you'll know that he wrote Shawshank Redemption, the novella that my favourite film came from. Funnily enough, I travelled in the opposite direction from you. I was quite keen on the highbrow stuff (still am) and was a bit snooty about people like King, but after reading Shawshank on holiday one year, realised that he was a really outstanding storyteller, and have read quite a few of his books since. Made me read a lot more modern fiction generally.

Sometimes it's only by accident that we discard our prejudices.

Andy

[Griff]

Andy,

I am indeed honored to be included in the text of your recent diary entry. Many thanks.

Two questions:

1. Where is the pink caddy? A friend of mine (an American car enthusiast) lives in Engine Common Lane, but I am sure he doesn't have one of those. He is mainly into pre-war cars. He lives on the corner of the dogleg bend about halfway up (running north).

2. I am constantly impressed by your erudition. Please indulge my curiosity: what did you study in Manchester? (Apart from the fairer sex and brewhouses).

[El Gordo]

You're welcome, Griff.

The pink Cadillac was parked in North Road (or is it North Street?) That road not far from the football ground, where the traffic lights are. There's a pub just up a little way on the right.

The car was in that road, not far from the pub. It was definitely pink and sort of 1950s American, and M described it as a Cadillac and she knows much more about cars than me, so I'm taking her word for it.

Don't be impressed by my erudition, please! I'm just full of bullshit really. I 'studied' Philosophy and Politics, though I spent 8 of my 9 terms there in one kind of coma or another. I certainly don't recall attending a lecture after my first term. But even if had done so, I don't think I'd remember anything about it.

Of course, those were the days when you got a full grant if you'd worked for 3 years between school and Uni. You have to feel sorry for the students of today, who apparently feel obliged to attend the odd lecture.

How's the Bristol training going?

Andy

[parky]

Andy,

where did you live when you were studying in Manchester, as I was born and bred there (18 years man and boy - hmm now where was that a quote from?).

[El Gordo]

Parky - I spent very little time "studying in Manchester" though I was at university there for 3 years.

After a year in a hall of residence on the Oxford Road, I lived in (where else?) West Didsbury for 2 years. It was a reassuringly long way from those lecture theatres on Ducie Street.

At least, that's where someone once told me that they were...