In Pursuit of Spring

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 remarkable images have been kept in archives for many years and will now be published for the very first time in this book.

Thomas journeys through Guildford, Winchester, Salisbury, across the Plain, to the Bristol Channel, recording the poet's thoughts and feelings as winter ends—a poignant snapshot of an England on the brink of irreversible change.