Writing poetry in the “true” way

Writing poetry in the “true” way

The photo above of Mary Stella Edwards is my favourite one of her in the archive. It’s a miss-shot really. Perhaps there was a light leak in the camera. But it shows – perhaps better than words can describe – how Mary Stella Edwards wrote poetry. Queen of enjambment...
Lament for Murdered Trees

Lament for Murdered Trees

… and a Curse on Evil Men! One of the many reasons I love Mary Stella Edwards’ poetry is that she writes about the more-than-human world in such an unusual way for her time. Even the wooden furniture in her bedroom prickles with agency. In her 1920 poem ‘The...
Letters from Gilbert Murray

Letters from Gilbert Murray

Archive research tends to be non-chronological. For example, I spent my early months in the archive reading Mary Stella Edwards’ letters from the 1970s and 80s. One name (apart from Judith’s) kept appearing in these letters… Gilbert Murray. Mary Stella mentioned...
Why does the archive exist?

Why does the archive exist?

Mary Stella Edwards actively put together the Ackland and Edwards archive in the years after Judith Ackland died. But why? The two women weren’t well-known as artists, and Edwards’ final three books of poetry were published very late in her lifetime. Might this be the...
The Dark Pool

The Dark Pool

As a typical archive rookie, I arrived at the Burton confident that the Ackland and Edwards Archive would contain the answers to all my questions. In fact, every day I spend in the archive, I leave with more questions than I arrived with. It’s rather like trying to...