The Shepherd's Calendar

John Clare’s jewel of pastoral and romantic poetry

ESTIMATED PUBLICATION DATE:
Mid-2026

We have long wanted to publish an edition of John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar, to be illustrated with engravings by Andy English. Andy has a lifelong love of this jewel of pastoral and romantic poetry, and the project has been the subject of many conversations between us over the past ten years. But as we grow older certain plans become more urgent, and The Shepherd’s Calendar is one of them. Accordingly, we have discussed the details with Andy and set things in motion, and as of January 2025 he is embarked on plans, including a sketching trip to Helpston, Northamptonshire, which is near his own home near Ely in Cambridgeshire. Crispin is working on establishing the text (more on that later) and we now hope to have this book in the press by mid-2026. It will include many engravings to set off Clare’s delightful portraits of village life in the early 19th century; Andy intends to draw and engrave the images month by month through the year to achieve them – literally – in the right light. We are looking forward with real excitement to producing this book.