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Edward Thomas
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
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
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