News
15 November 2007
Romantic poets specialist on Radio 4
In the programme broadcast on Tuesday 13 November, Dr Kövesi discussed the role that a watchmaker and poet called Thomas Inskip played in the fascinating careers of two of England’s greatest working-class poets – John Clare and Robert Bloomfield.
Both poets were befriended by Inskip (1779-1849) who tried in vain to get them to meet. Inskip was a close friend of Bloomfield and had a pivotal role in the publication of Clare’s verse of the 1840’s.
‘Making History’ aims to answer listeners’ historical queries. The interview came about after a descendant of Inskip contacted the programme to ask if they could find out anything about his relationship to the two poets.
Listen to the programme on the BBC Radio 4 website.
Simon Kovesi is Editor of the John Clare Society Journal, and edits The John Clare Page - www.johnclare.info. He has edited two collections of Clare’s verse (Bangkok, 1999 and 2001), a collection of essays about the poet (Helpston, 2000), and was Assistant General Editor of the 6 volumes of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century English Labouring-Class Poets, (London, 2003 and 2006). His book-length study of the Scottish contemporary novelist James Kelman is published later this month.
