John Edward

Another Man In Pursuit of Spring: Revisiting Edward Thomas' 1913 Cycle Ride From Wandsworth To Somerset John Edward

In March 1913 shortly before the outbreak of World War One, Edward Thomas cycled from Wandsworth in London to Somerset in search of spring. It was not a simple journey. It took him through the soft underbelly of southern England. Through cities, towns, villages and hamlets and of course through the open countryside during a period of great change. He was looking for some evidence of the enduring presence of a countryside that he had grown to love and of the countryfolk that traditionally inhabited it. But this search also brought him into contact with the auguries of change that were sweeping across this countryside, changes which went on to shape life in England in the 20th Century. Changes that distinguished it from the very different 19th century world that had proceeded it. This book follows Thomas revisiting his loves, his preoccupations and his deeper concerns and in the process inevitably touches upon the auguries that inhabit the modern landscape, that place questions on the path to out own future these hundred or so years further on.