by ROGER FRITH
A monologue compiled from the letters and later poetry ot JOHN CLARE , with Freddie Jones as John Clare Narrator Roger Frith
On 29 December 1841, following his escape from High Beech Asylum, Epping. in the July. John Clare was dragged forcibly from his cottage at Northborough and committed to Northampton Asylum where he was to spend the last 22 years of his life. It was to be a period that fluctuated between fitful delusion and great creativity; and it was the poetry that Clare wrote during this closing period of his life that, as Geoffrey Grigson so rightly said, ' pushes Clare over the border between the pathetically interesting and exquisite into the great ... ' Incidental music composed and conducted by DAVID CAIN Producer KEITH SLADE
(31 March, Radio 4, 4.5 pm: John Barrett takes a naturalist's look at Clare's work)