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From Country Pursuits to the Western Front Find!
Perhaps because the anti-war sentiments of the 'war poets' are so strong, their other writing is sometimes overlooked. I was not aware before of Siegfried Sassoon's fictionalised autobiography, The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston, nor did I know that Sassoon grew up in Kent, so for me this is a find.
The first part of this book presents a picture of a somewhat introverted and sensitive young man growing up in an apparently idyllic rural environment around Matfield, in the Weald of Kent, in the pre-war Edwardian era. Sassoon's descriptions of the countryside are charming and beautifully detailed. Many place names are identified, but invented names are used, and initially I found this somewhat irritating, as I wanted to track his wanderings on a map, but the disguises are mostly quite easy to unravel, and anyway, it would be unfair to use this as a criticism of a very readable book.
Incidentally, was there a local wave of poetry in the air in Kent in the early part of the 20th Century, with Siegfied Sassoon, Edmund Blunden and Edward Thomas writing at that time? Last year I was transcribing letters written during World War 1 by men who all came from the small village of Great Chart, near Ashford, in Kent. While a patient at a military hospital, one of these men composed a poem which was later sent out to all his local comrades in their many different locations. Several of the men commented in their letters on how much the verses helped them to keep going through those terrible times. A real testimony to the power of poetry!
27 September 2009 from Julia
Finds
- Pangbourne - a love affair with a gorilla
- Out of the Blue by Val Rutt
- The Kent Factor
- Grubby Tales from Beardy Ardagh
- The Men of Kent March On
- The Curse of Aphis Minimus
- One True Crime
- Why Pick Lydden?
- From Maidstone Prison to the Wide Sargasso Sea!
- Dover- Life's a Beach
- The ideal home
- The Tramping Methodist - more tramping in Kent!
- The Small Years by Frank Kendon
- Everyone Loves Rupert Bear!
- Knole
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 4
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 3
- On the write tracks in literary Kent - Day 2
- On the write tracks in literary Kent Day 1
- On the write tracks in literary Kent
- Penshurst is the Place
- From Country Pursuits to the Western Front
- Edmund Blunden - echoes from Yalding church bells
- Jane Austen walk
- John Knatchbull from Quarterdeck to Gallows
- Catherine Aird
- More from the tramps .....
- Van Gogh in Ramsgate?
- Tissot A Passing Storm c1876
- The Downfall of a Reading Detective
- Male Georgian/Regency authors
- Bluestocking writers
- Sketches By Boz - We must leave town!
- If You're Going to Snodland...
- The Kent Tramp Trail
- The Altar in the Loft
- Regency and Georgian Literature with a Kent Connection
- Jane Austen and Godmersham by The Rev. S. Graham Brade-Birks
- Kent Clues!
Recent posts
- Poetry dropping in Sandwich
- Reading Detectives film
- Out of the Blue - continued
- Denton Welch
- 45 London Road Sevenoaks
- To Penshurst
- Kent Finale!
- Mon 21 Sep 10.30 am DETECTIVE EVENT AT CENTRE FOR KENTISH STUDIES, MAIDSTONE
- Cat Lovers
- W H Davies
- Silence on the home front as my hard drive has died
- Jeffery Farnol
- Denton Welch, a look back to simpler times
- What Jane Austen really looked like !
- Life in the Country: With Quotations by Jane Austen and Silhouettes by Her Nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh
- First Meeting for Kent
- Jane Austen - Monster Mash Up
- Launch of Kent's Reading Detectives Team on 12 August
- Jane Austen Heritage Link
- Reading Detectives are starting soon in Kent
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