Edward Thomas Fellowship Poetry Competition 2022, the Edward Cawston Thomas prize.

The 2022 Poetry Competition winning poems, judged by Jamie McKendrick, have just been announced.

We were delighted by the quality and number of entries – over 480 – this year, and warmly thank everyone who entered.

The winning poem of the Competition is ‘Shadowland’  by James Driver.  Joint second are ‘This’ by Kathryn Bevis   and ‘Kaze no Denwa (The Wind Phone)’  by  Theresa Giffard. Highly commended were  Derek Sellen (for two poems), Bill Dodd,  Lawrence Wray, James Driver (for a second poem.)

Jamie’s report will be published here in due course but in the meantime we thought you would all like to read these wonderful poems and join us in congratulating the winners.… Continue Reading

Edward Thomas Fellowship and Charitable Status

This item is similar to the one that was circulated in a recent eBulletin but as not all members receive this it is repeated here, with an important update about potential delays to our move to Charitable Status.

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone who either mailed or emailed in with their thoughts on the proposed constitution, which was overwhelmingly approved.

The next steps are to form what will become the first Trustee Board of the new Charity and which will be proposed to and voted on by members at the AGM in March 2022.… Continue Reading

“Comrades in Letters” is a new book being published by the Edward Thomas Fellowship about the relationship between Edward Thomas and Gordon Bottomley.

Gordon Bottomley and Edward Thomas were close friends for many years, from the late 1890s until Thomas’s death.  The fact that they lived about three hundred miles apart, Bottomley in the Lake District and Thomas in the South,  meant that they only met at long intervals, and that their friendship was conducted chiefly by correspondence.

We are beneficiaries in that the many letters of Thomas to Bottomley have survived.  Those from Bottomley to Thomas are thought to have perished in the great bonfire that Thomas lit before enlisting. … Continue Reading

We are pleased to say that, where available, recordings from sessions delivered at the 2021 Edward Thomas Literary Festival are currently accessible on YouTube by following the link here.

Further sessions will be added to this link as they become available.

Access to the recordings are free. If you have enjoyed listening to them and feel you would like to make a donation towards the running costs of future Festivals you may do so via the PayPal button below. The theme for the 2022 Festival will be The Woodland Life, which is 125 years ‘young’ in October 2022.

Thank you for your interest in the work of the Edward Thomas Fellowship and the independent Petersfield Museum

 … Continue Reading

To celebrate the opening of the new Edward Thomas Study Centre, for a limited period (and whilst stocks remain) the Fellowship is pleased to make copies of Words into Wood available at a reduced price of £60 – to include UK postage and packing.

Further details and the ordering process are available here.

… Continue Reading

The Edward Thomas Study Centre opened its doors for the first time on Wednesday 9 June 2021.

For further information please go to the Study Centre page on this website.… Continue Reading

Added today (28 April 20121) under the section External References / Related Themes, Edward Thomas Poetry Places – is a website set up to identify the places that inspired the poems of Edward Thomas and encourage people to walk in his footsteps. Through his published and unpublished writings, including his field note books and letters, as well as other contemporary sources, and also walking the walks that he did, it is possible to locate or identify more closely the places which he drew on for many of his poems. The website will be updated regularly with new posts on the locations of individual poems and the walks that can be taken around each.… Continue Reading

Join nature writer and poet Matthew Oates on Sunday 21 March 2021 as he reads and talks about Edward Thomas’ poem ‘March’.

Full details can be found on our ‘Events’ page here… Continue Reading

The 2021 Birthday Walk, which would normally take place in March has been postponed due to the COVID pandemic.