Sir Ian MacAlister
When Edward Thomas was killed in France in 1917 English literature was the poorer by a writer who, in his blending of sensitiveness with a keen critical ability, occupied an almost unique place in his craft.
It was Edward Thomas's tragedy that his work was little known during his lifetime. His wife, Helen Thomas, has told this story in two books 'As It Was' and 'World Without End'.
Critic, nature writer, and biographer, Thomas only turned to poetry during the war. The first of his volumes of verse was published in 1917, and the second posthumously in 1918. Sir Ian MacAlister, who will give his reminiscences this evening, was a personal friend of Thomas's from Oxford days onwards.