“A E Housman – A Worcestershire Lad” – Max Hunt
On 24th September 2024, Max Hunt, Secretary of the Housman Society, jump-started the Pershore Civic Society’s season of 2024/2025 Winter Talks with a fascinating insight into the life and times of AE Housman, who wrote the cycle of 63 poems that comprise “A Shropshire Lad”.
Max is no stranger to the Pershore Civic Society – having welcomed us in September 2023 to the Shelsley Walsh Water Mill which he has adopted as one of his causes celebre.
On this occasion, Max spoke of Housman as if he were a very close acquaintance. Alfred Edward Housman was an English classical scholar and poet. After an initially poor performance while at university, he took employment as a clerk in London and established his academic reputation by first publishing as a private scholar.
Housman was born and educated in Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, giving the lie to the popular misconception that he himself was a Shropshire Lad.
Copies of a newly published (in Pershore by Hughes & Co.!!) version of A Shropshire Lad were made available for purchase on the evening by Max’s friend Linda Hart. We are very grateful to both for their visit.
