Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas

EdwardThomaswasperhapsthemostbeguilingandinfluentialofFirstWorldWarpoets.NowAllRoadsLeadtoFranceisanaccountofhisfinalfiveyears,centredonhisextraordinaryfriendshipwithRobertFrostandThomas'sfataldecisiontofightinthewar.ThebookalsoevokesanastonishinglycreativemomentinEnglishliterature,whenLondonwasabattlegroundfornew,ambitiouskindsofwriting.AgenerationthatincludedW.B.Yeats,EzraPound,RobertFrostandRupertBrookewere'makingitnew'-vehementlyandpugnaciously.Theselarger-than-lifecharacterssurroundacentralfigure,tormentedbyhisworkandhismarriage.ButashisfriendshipwithFrostblossomed,Thomaswrotepoemafterpoem,andhisemotionalafflictionbegantolift.In1914thetwofriendsformedtheideasthatwouldproducesomeofthemostremarkableverseofthetwentiethcentury.ButtheWarputanoceanbetweenthem:FrostreturnedtothesafetyofNewEnglandwhileThomasstayedtofightfortheOld.Itistheseroadstaken-andthosenottaken-thatareattheheartofthisremarkablebook,whichculminatesinThomas'stragicdeathonEasterMonday1917.