Autumn Newsletter 2010

War Poetry Review

The 2010 issue of the WPA's Journal: War Poetry Review is now available in electronic format. It will be published shortly in print and sent to all members. View the List of Contents here. If you are a subscribing annual member and would like access to the electronic edition now, please e-mail journal@warpoets.org. Passwords are being sent to all honorary and life members.

Isaac Rosenberg’s letter to Paul Nash illustrates Jean Liddiard's article, and there are six illustrations in the article about the First World War Poetry Digital Archive: Rosenberg and Graves manuscripts, a letter by Gurney, and a photo of Sassoon, Blunden and Dennis Silk together ar Heytesbury.

 REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

The War Association is a registered company and registered charity. As such it submits annual reports to the regulatory bodies and is in the process of doing so to Companies House. The review of recent activities - up to 28 February 2010 - may be of interest to our membership as a whole and extracts are reproduced here:

1.     The Association continued to support major national war poetry events, in co-operation with the  Imperial War Museum and other bodies, by helping with recruitment for events and securing discounts for its members. These included during the year:

a.    Modern War Poetry  at the Imperial War Museum, London, Monday, 23 March 2009

Drawing on the work of poet soldiers who are serving, or have recently served, in Iraq or Afghanistan, this event provided a fascinating insight into the nature of modern war, from the viewpoint of those who have experienced it at first hand.

The event was introduced by Max Hastings, the distinguished military historian, and Christina Lamb, foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times. The speakers were Brian Turner, a former US Marine and author of Here, Bullet, the most acclaimed poetry collection to emerge from Iraq; Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Brown, at the time still on active service in Iraq; and Major David Hamilton, who formerly served in Afghanistan. 

b.   A 'Poets of the War' battlefields tour was planned for October 2009 but later postponed to make way for a similar tour being organized by the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship for later in 2010. A WPA Tour looking at the battlefield experiences of Edmund Blunden and Isaac Rosenberg is now being planned for 2011. 

c.   'Where Are All the War Poets? Poetry of the Second World War'. ThisWPA/IWM Event took place at the Imperial War Museum, London on Monday 2 November, 2009. Poet and writer Owen Sheers, presenter of BBC 4 TV series A Poet's Guide to Britain, joined John Stallworthy, University of Oxford, and Fran Brearton, Queen's University, Belfast, at the IWM to explore the poetry of the Second World War: the poets, their influences and their legacy. WPA President Professor Paul O'Prey of Roehampton University chaired the evening. A substantial audience was attracted. 

d.   The Association also supported a number of  other major war poetry or related events during the year, often through the involvement, advice and support of its officers and committee members and publicity given through its website, rather than direct financial support. Events  in which it was most involved during the year included: 

·        Songs of War, a concert of songs set to poems written by First World War Poets, organized by the Wilfred Owen Association. The concert took place at St James's Church, Piccadilly, London. On Saturday 25 April 2009. 

Two events at the Dylan Thomas Festival, Swansea, at the end of October 2009: