In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas
Summary:
In mid to late March 1913, as the storm clouds of the Great War which was to claim his life gathered, Edward Thomas took a bicycle ride from Clapham to the Quantock Hills. The poet recorded his journey through his beloved South Country and his account was published as In Pursuit of Spring in 1914. Regarded as one of his most important prose works, it stands as an elegy for a world now lost. What is less well-known is that Thomas took with him a camera, and photographed much of what he saw, noting the locations on the back of the prints. These have been kept in archives for many years and will now be published for the very first time in the book. Thomas journeys through Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury, across the Plain, to the Bristol Channel, recording the poet’s thoughts and feelings as winter ends.
My Review:
It is ironic that I am writing a review for a book with this title as I write yet another winter storm blows through and dark winter clouds speed past as I gaze skywards from my desk the looks out to the Somerset hills.
As the darkness of winter begins to fade and the signs of Spring are gathering pace Edward Thomas wanted to see the end of winter and find the signs of Spring but to do this he would need to travel from his home in South London. It is March 1913 as much as the darkness of winter is receding there are much darker clouds on the horizon. This was the year before the start of The Great War. In Pursuit of Spring (Little Toller) by Edward Thomas tells his story of his journey to seek signs of Spring.
As Edward Thomas began his journey on his bicycle from the suburbs of South London to Somerset this was just not going to be a journey of finding Spring but also a journey that would make Edward Thomas the poet that we would come to love. This land was very different in March 1913 in many ways but the leisurely journey he took I have known for many years. This was not going to be a journey rushed it was leisurely as he not just cycles he also walked for parts of the journey and armed with just the very basics but the most important was a notebook and pencil and a camera for the photos in this book are the very ones he took.
As a Welshman Thomas loved his homeland but loved this country and the typical English countryside. He wanted to fields and churches and typical sleepy English villages, writing and taking photographs as he went. Each county is unique in many ways and reading In Pursuit of Spring you get a sense of the poetic and yet hypnotic sense of Thomas’s writing and what was to come.
Many of the photographs in this beautiful book are of empty lanes and roads through villages, a snapshot of a moment from history. But as I read his words my heart ached for what was to come for Edward Thomas in coming years as war approached. But Thomas wanted to seek the end of Winter and welcome Spring like a long lost friend and to feel the wind and rain on his face. Stopping at various locations and reciting poetry that can be found on the pages of this book.
As he reached Somerset he found Spring and the dark clouds of Winter have departed. It was as he travelled through the village of Nether Stowey, the home of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and a place in Somerset where not just my heart lies, a place I have come to love. Anyone with a passion for poetry and prose and the countryside will love In Pursuit of Spring.
In 1915 Edward Thomas enlisted in the Artist’s Rifles and was killed in 1917 in the Battle of Arras. In Pursuit of Spring was first published in 1914.
228 Pages.
Thank you to Little Toller for the review copy of In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas
In Pursuit of Spring by Edward Thomas was published by Little Toller and was published on 3rd March 2016 and is available through Waterstones, Amazon and through your local independent bookshop.
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