A bitter-sweet tale which evokes both the splendour and the harshness of life in rural England at the beginning of the 19th century and deals with the events which would lead to tragedy for the peasant poet. It is a novel which will have a universal appeal because of is strong and deeply moving story. For many readers The Ballad of John Clare will bring to mind the major novels of Thomas Hardy. What marks The Ballad of John Clare from other books about John Clare is that it deals with John Clare's early life, in fact when he is seventeen. The teenaged Clare is in tune with nature and the rural environment around his home in Helpston in the East of England. In the momentous twelve months covered by the novel we see him courting his childhood sweetheart, having his first sexual encounter with an older woman, labouring in the fields, playing his fiddle and singing at local entertainments, but above all we see him at one with the natural world. This is no rural idyll, however, as the enclosures are about to begin, taking the land held in common by communities and parcelling it out to the local landowners. Starvation and malnutrition are a constant presence in rural England. The Ballad of John Clare has a very strong sense of place and brings to life the villages and countryside around Peterborough and lets us empathise with the young John Clare. Educated beyond his class, the peasant poet is about to emerge on his short and tragic career. AUTHOR: Hugh Lupton makes his living as a storyteller and author of children's fiction. He tours schools and literary festivals and is often to be heard on the radio bringing the oral tradition of Britain to life. The Ballad of John Clare is very different from and darker and more powerful than his work for children.