Beaconsfield to commemorate poet's time in town

A special event on Saturday, September 15 will mark the centenary of Frost coming to live in the town with his wife and four children.

American Linda Hart and actor Gabriel Woolf will stage two performances at the Fitzwilliams Centre in the Old Town – with readings of Frost’s poems and an outline of his time in Britain.

Linda has lived in England for many years, and written and lectured on Robert Frost both here and in the States.

Gabriel is a well-known literary performer and frequent reader on Radio 4. They will describe how Frost found a publisher in London, befriended many writers such as W.B. Yeats and moved into a cottage in Reynolds Road.

The Bungalow, as it was called, no longer exists but a plaque on the brick wall now marks the spot where it stood.

Frost was living there when he made his literary breakthrough with publication of his first book of poems, before he was published and recognized in America.

He is said to have loved walking in the Chilterns and wrote some of his most famous poems while living in Beaconsfield, including Mending Wall, Home Burial, and After Apple Picking.

The family moved to Gloucestershire in 1914, and subsequently back to the United States after the outbreak of the First World War.

The centenary event is being sponsored by The Frost Partnership estate agency, which is run by John Frost [no relation], whose great-grandfather was a prominent Beaconsfield businessman who befriended Robert Frost.

It is also backed by The Beaconsfield Society and being organised by member Kari Dorme, a former town librarian.

She is an enthusiastic Frost fan who was instrumental in raising awareness of the poet in 2001 and putting the plaque in place in Reynolds Road.

Performances will be at 2.30 and 6pm. Tickets for unreserved seats cost £10 each and are on sale at Beaconsfield Library, The Frost Partnership office or via Beaconsfield Society website: www.beaconsfieldsociety.org.uk