Eden Valley – Into the Threshold Light

These poems, alongside photographs – and paintings by Nick Jones – have been written over a number of years whilst the author lived in and explored the Eden Valley. Taken together, they offer a meditation upon the people who have settled over millennia and left their memorials in cairns, henges, standing stones, hogbacks, settlements, churches, castles, railways and bridges. They celebrate as well the wildlife, trees and flowers which grow alongside the valleys and waterways of Eden.

The poems are arranged so they start at the springs of Eden and gradually make their way down river, taking excursions to interesting sites and monuments, to the eventual outflow into the Solway. Some powerful figures are considered during the journey, such as Lady Anne Clifford and Sarah Losh with their impressive artistic and architectural achievements but also more humble figure who made their mark in different ways.