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Join the poet Robert Hamberger to follow in the footsteps of the ‘peasant poet’ John Clare, retracing aspects of the four years Clare spent at High Beach asylum in Epping Forest (1837-.1841) We’ll walk near the site of the asylum, explore some of the areas in the Forest, where he walked, the poems Clare wrote and also hear Robert read from his own memoir A Length of Road:Finding myself in the footsteps of John Clare.

In partnership with Epping Forest Heritage Trust.

In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex

This walk is part of a series of In My Steps: Radical Walks in Essex taking place during 2022. Essex Book Festival has partnered with Focal Point Gallery to deliver these guided walks, re-examining the county in relation to radicalism in thought, lifestyle, politics and architecture.

In this walk we are delighted to team up with Robert Hamberger to shine a light on his latest book – A Length of Road: Finding Myself in the Footsteps of John Clare. Part memoir, part travel-writing, part literary criticism it is a deeply profound and poetic exploration of class, gender, grief and sexuality.

Buy the Book

You can buy a copy of Robert Hamberger’s A Length of Road: Finding Myself in the Footsteps of John Clare at bookshop.org

About the Author

Robert Hamberger has been shortlisted and highly commended for Forward prizes, appearing in the Forward Book of Poetry 2020. He has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship; his poetry has been featured as the Guardian Poem of the Week and in British, American, Irish and Japanese anthologies. He has published six poetry pamphlets and four full-length collections. Blue Wallpaper (published by Waterloo Press) was shortlisted for the 2020 Polari Prize. His prose memoir with poems A Length of Road: finding myself in the footsteps of John Clare was published by John Murray in summer 2021. His website is roberthamberger.co.uk