Description
Cradley Churchyard in Herefordshire contains a plain and unremarkable grave stone. The story behind it is anything but unremarkable. It is the memorial to a gifted and privileged young man, Henry Clarkson Maclean who lived in Cradley in the early 1890s. During the afternoon of August 6th 1895 Henry Maclean booked into London’s Charing Cross Hotel and, later that evening, in Room 300, he shot himself in the head. His story and the events leading up to his suicide tell us a lot about the intolerance and hypocrisy of late Victorian society. Two other people were famously affected by that same intolerance. They were both writers and intellectuals – one was Oscar Wilde, the other was AE Housman. In this deeply moving talk Max will explain how Housman’s poetry was influenced by these events of 1895, before focussing on poem 44 of A Shropshire Lad. This poem begins with the line ‘Shot, so quick, so clean an ending’ and was written very shortly after Maclean’s death. Max Hunt is a regular and very popular Festival speaker.
This is a joint event with Evesham Festival of Words and sponsored by The Housman Society.
Arrivals from 12.30pm, lunch will be served at 1pm
Please note that Holland House does not provide a choice menu at meal times and it is therefore very important that you note any food types that you are unable to eat due to an allergy or you can advise of a dietary preference of vegetarian, pescatarian, dairy free, gluten free or vegan.