Appreciation of the Gloucestershire poet
Sat 07 Mar and Sun 08 Mar 2026
An event at the Dean Heritage Centre celebrating new discoveries in the Forest of Dean Writers Collection – a must for anyone interested in the literary heritage of the Forest.
The event schedule is below. More details can be found here.
FW Harvey will be a feature of The Dymock Poets Spring meeting at Much Marcle on Saturday 14 March 2025.
For details of the programme and booking details go to this link to the Dymock Poets’ newsletter.
We were very sad to learn about the recent passing of Anthony Boden.
Following a career in the RAF medical service for which he was awarded the Order of St John’s Officer’s Cross in 1987 in recognition of his services to military medicine. He became the Three Choirs Festival organiser between 1989 and1999 and wrote the definitive history of the Festival.
Anthony had a passion for music and literature. In 1995 he was the founding Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society, of which he was elected president in 2015. His books include ‘Stars in a dark night: the letters of Ivor Gurney to the Chapman Family’ (1986 rev 2004), ‘F W Harvey: Soldier Poet’ (1988 rev 2016), ‘The Parrys of the Golden Vale: background to genius’ (1998), ‘Thomas Tomkins: the last Elizabethan’ (2005), and with R K R Thornton ‘FW Harvey selected poems’ (2011).
He gave strong support to the founding of the F.W. Harvey Society in 2010 and attended many events. He very kindly recently donated his F.W. Harvey research archive based on his research for his biography ‘Soldier, Poet’ to the Society and these have been in turn donated to Dean Heritage Centre and are available for inspection there.
Will Harvey’s poem “Hymn for Armistice Day” can be heard on the poetry posts at Bream Community Library and Yorkley.
In addition, five of Harvey’s war related poems appeared in the 8 Nov 20205 edition of Poetry at the Library on Forest Talk.
If you would like to read/listen you can download both at https://breamcommunitylibrary.co.uk/poetry
Many thanks to Elaine Jackson for allowing the use of Harvey’s work.
UPDATE:
We had an excellent day, with a good crowd, much interest, and excellent feedback. Huge thanks to the panel members, the Minsterworth Hall organisers, the catering ladies, and to the audience.
Join us on Sat 1st Nov when the F.W. Harvey Society annual event takes place at Minsterworth Village Hall on Saturday 1st November this year, from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm.
The event focuses on the influence of Minsterworth on Harvey’s writing. It showcases new research by Terry Moore-Scott published in the new society journal to be launched at the event.
A panel including Terry, Eleanor Rawling from the University of Oxford, Doug McLean the Forest publisher, and Stewart Carswell, a local poet, will be looking at the impact of Minsterworth on Will Harvey and debating whether the blissful pastoral image of pre-war Severnside was real or imagined.
There will be talks by Doug McLean who published Will Harvey’s Collected Works and Selected Poems, and John Slater, artist in residence at Dean Heritage Centre.
The event opens with an especially commissioned film of Will Harvey’s Minsterworth, and will include some contemporary poetry from Forest poet Maggie Clutterbuck.
10.30 am Coffee and welcome.
10.40 Will Harvey’s Minsterworth
11.30 Panel Chaired by Jo Durrant.
The influence of Minsterworth on the work of FWH. An imaginary Place?
12.30 Establishing the FW Harvey Library.
12.45 Contemporary poems from Maggie Clutterbuck
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Publishing Will Harvey. Doug McLean of Forest Bookshop
2.45 Working with Elvers John Slater, Artist in Residence at Dean Heritage Centre
3.15 Launch of the F.W. Harvey Society Journal and Finish.
Entry is free with donations from non-members happily accepted towards the cost of the lunch.
Location: Minsterworth Village Hall Main Road, Minsterworth GL2 8JH. Parking available.
To become a member, go to our membership page here or join on the day.
Minsterworth is where the FW Harvey story really began. His family moved to the village when he was a few years old and it became an abiding presence in his work.
On Saturday 1st November we will be discussing new research about his life in the village and its influence on his writing. Was this an Edwardian idyll to be forever changed by the First World War? Why was Catholicism attractive to him when his charismatic mother had raised him in Anglicism at St Peter’s Church? And Dorothy, the famous little boat; who actually owned it?
Enjoy a stimulating discussion, lunch and launch of the new journal with the FW Harvey Society 10.30am-3pm Saturday 1st November 2025 at Minsterworth Village Hall.
Free event. The journal will be on sale at a discounted rate to members of the Society. Go here for how to join.