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Just over 107 years ago, on June 24 1914, a train pulled up at a village halt in Oxfordshire. On board was the poet Edward Thomas, who kept a field diary in which he noted details of things he observed, often on the surface very trivial.

On this occasion nothing happened of any note, except that the engine let off steam and somebody coughed. And in the silence, he heard a blackbird singing and saw the station sign, Adlestrop. A minute later the train continued its journey to Worcester. Months later, he turned this non-event into a 16-line verse which is one of the greatest evocations of the English countryside, one of the most anthologised poems of the last century.

In this session, we will be taking an in-depth look at this poem, Adlestrop, plus a number of others that will help us appreciate why many regard Thomas as one of the great writers about nature and the English countryside.

John Cairns is a former English teacher, now retired, who has had a lifelong interest in the poet Edward Thomas.  Well before Thomas became the popular poet that he is today, John taught his poems to secondary school students, visited places associated with the poet and his poems and, in the mid-1970s, spent an enjoyable and illuminating afternoon having tea with his one surviving daughter, Myfanwy.

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