Product Description

Edward Thomas never left the train that stopped briefly at a Cotswold station, Adlestrop, just before World War I, but what he saw resulted in one of the best known and loved English poems. Generations of literary pilgrims have visited the village which inspired the poem, while many modern writers have composed their own tributes to the poet and the place where, after the closure of the station, the nameboard was lovingly retained. This anthology explores Adlestrop's literary, topographical and railway associations. Anne Harvey investigates the origins of the poem, and asks: did the train really stop "unwontedly"?; was it an express?; and was Thomas travelling alone? His fascination with railways began in boyhood and is seen in two of his little-known short stories, "A Third-Class Carriage" and "Death by Misadventure". The book also examines the connection with Jane Austen, who visited her relatives at Adlestrop Park and Rectory, and there are poems from Peter Porter, Alan Brownjohn, P.J. Kavanagh, Dannie Abse and Brian Patten. A selection of illustrations includes facsimiles of Thomas's original manuscript and notebook entries, photographs and wood engravings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #501899 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Customer Reviews

In-depth and wide-ranging background for a favourite poem.
This in-depth anthology is for those delighted by the visual as much as the poetic. And it ranges from 1916, when Edward Thomas wrote his evocative poem (one of the nation's favourites), to the present. Anne Harvey has trawled widely among the known and the unknown with equal success. Photographs and drawings bring Thomas's circle alive, there are timetables and other railwayana, and there is a further-reading list for those ferrets wanting more. Illustrations by such artists as Gwen Raverat and C.F.Tunnicliffe are reproduced, with writing by John Betjeman and Dannie Abse among many others. This book isn't just a nostalgia trip. It's a rich, beautiful patchwork which achieves its effect by the juxtaposition of the past and the contemporary.