Epping Forest was given to the public in 1878. It has many historical and literary associations involving, for example, Harold II, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Tennyson, Clare and Churchill. Nicholas Hagger came to Epping Forest during the war. As a boy he knew Sir William Addison, long recognised as an authority on the Forest, and saw Churchill speak in his village in 1945. He grew up against the background of the Forest and visited it regularly when he was living elsewhere. The Forest has come into many of his poems and other works. In Part One of this book he conveys the history of Epping Forest in the times of the Celts and Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Normans, Medievals and Tudors, and enclosers and loppers. In Part Two he shows how history has shaped the Forest places he grew up with: Loughton, Chigwell, Woodford, Buckhurst Hill, Waltham Abbey, High Beach, Upshire, Epping, the Theydons and Chingford Plain. An Appendix contains some of his poems about these places. His blending of history, recollection and poetic reflection presents a rounded view of the Forest. Using a technique of objective narrative he developed in other works and drawing on personal experience to give the flavour of a personal memoir, he evokes the spirit of the Forest through its best-loved places and wildlife, and brings the Forest alive through his historical perspective, evocation of Nature and vivid writing.

About the Author
Nicholas Hagger is a poet, man of letters, cultural historian and philosopher. He is an authority on the Tudor time and Shakespeare, and is devoted to Epping Forest and Cornwall. He is the author of more than 30 books.

Reviews
Nicholas Hagger writes with a rare intellectual passion. (Sir Laurens van der Post) He hits a pace, a tilt, that really carries the reader along...Everything comes as a subordinate clause to his dramatic momentum, a hand waving out of the express train window. (Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate)



Book Information
ISBN 9781846945878
Author Nicholas Hagger
Format Paperback
Page Count 444
Imprint John Hunt Publishing
Publisher Collective Ink
Weight(grams) 516g
Dimensions(mm) 217mm * 139mm * 26mm