It's the 150th anniversary of the birth of AE Housman next month.
To mark the occasion, a photographic edition of A Shropshire Lad is being published.
It celebrates the beauty of the Shropshire landscape, from Ludlow to Clun, from Clee Hill to the Wrekin.
Local vet-turned-professional-photographer Gareth Thomas has captured on camera the diversity of the rural landscapes, steeples and skies that so inspired Housman's verse.
My favourite Housman poem is this one, With Rue My Heart is Laden.
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had,
For many a rose-lipped maiden
And many a lightfoot lad.
By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid;
The rose-lipped girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade.
It's beautiful, isn't it. And now I'll shut up before I start sounding like an English teacher.
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