Description
The idea behind this talk arose from an increasing awareness of how many writers, in their own work, quoted lines or phrases from one of Housman’s poems. The most obvious is Colin Dexter’s The Remorseful Day, in the Morse series of books. But there are so many more including – WH Auden, John Betjeman, Dorothy Sayers, Tom Stoppard. The talk starts however with Housman himself, noting that he was born and brought up in Worcestershire not Shropshire, and was a Latin scholar not a poet. The timeless and universal themes in A Shropshire Lad are covered, as well as the circumstances that led to his writing the 63 poems.
Presented by Linda Hart with readings by Max Hunt.
Linda Hart’s academic career brought her from the US to the UK in the 1970s. Since then, she has worked on campaigns to protect the English countryside, and lectured widely on literary topics such as the Dymock Poets and A.E. Housman. Max Hunt is an historian by academic training whose working life in education culminated in nine years as a Chief Education Officer. Now retired, he lectures on a wide range of local history topics and is the Secretary of the Housman Society.
Linda and Max will also be presenting A Shropshire Lad’s Journey from Gloucester to Cambridge on Saturday 28th June, 1.00 pm, as part of Evesham Festival of Words main weekend.
This is a joint Holland House/Evesham Festival of Words event.
Arrivals from 12.30pm, lunch will be served at 1pm