'Robert Graves and the Experience of War' - images of a Literary Conference

In July 2004, Richard Perceval Graves was one of those fortunate enough to be invited to participate in the Sixth International Robert Graves Conference, under the title: 'Robert Graves and the Experience of War'.

The organiser was Graves scholar Patrick Villa, pictured right; and the conference was held largely in the buildings of the British Council and the University of London British Institute in Paris (above left), though we also toured the Somme battlefields, and visited the Thiepval Monument (above right).
There follows a short series of photographs, with a little descriptive text

      


Our hosts at the British Council were Mr. and Mrs. John Tod, pictured left during one of the breaks between lectures. John is the Director of the British Council in France, and the warm welcome given to us by him and his wife was very much appreciated.





     Two of our most distinguished visitors are shown to the right: 1) Dominic Hibberd, (wearing the tie) the biographer of Wilfred Owen, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a most witty and accomplished speaker, who gave a thought-provoking talk on 'Poetry and Experience in the Great War'. He is pictured sitting with 2) Professor John Kelly of St. John's College Oxford, the editor of an acclaimed edition of Yeats's correspondence and the most internationally eminent scholar present, who gave an absolutely masterly paper on 'Yeats and World War 1'.


      

Here we see Richard Perceval Graves (author of what has been described as 'the definitive biography of Robert Graves'). He spoke on 'Artistic Truth and Good-bye to All That'. Richard (in the pale suit) is pictured sitting at the Thoumieux Restaurant - a family-run Parisian institution - next to his cousin William Graves (Robert Graves's Literary Executor and a key figure in the Robert Graves Society).

      

Dunstan Ward, President of the Robert Graves Society and editor with the late Beryl Graves of Robert Graves's 'Complete Poems' was the Academic Organiser of the Conference, and responsible for the conference programme. He invited many of our guests (including the British Ambassador) conceived and planned most of the activities, including a memorable videoconference link with the US, and also gave a paper on Graves's posthumously published poetry.


     On one particularly memorable evening we were treated to a poetry reading given by Ruth Fainlight, Grevel Lindop , Stephen Romer, Jon Stallworthy and (pictured afterwards in a characteristic pose) the great novelist Alan Sillitoe, whose classic 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' owed much to Robert Graves's encouragement.



      

A surprise 'hit' of the Conference (to those of us who didn't know her work) was Elizabeth Prelinger of Georgetown University in Washington, USA. A natural teacher, she spoke rivettingly on 'Brushes with Death: Images of World War 1', accompanying her talk with a splendid series of illustrations.




     Sitting in this audience, waiting for an event to begin, is Dr. Nicholas Carter of the University of Trieste in Italy, who (with his academic brilliance and his mellifluous voice) gave the opening key address on the subject of 'The Great War and Graves's Memory'.

      


On Thursday 8 July, a coach took many of us to Peronne on the Somme, where during the morning we enjoyed a lengthy visit to l'Historial de le Grand Guerre (pictured left). Following lunch at the Museum, we went on to tour the Somme Battlefields.

Throughout this experience we were fortunate enough to be guided by Helen McPhail (pictured right) of the Wilfred Owen Association. With her unrivalled knowledge and tremendous enthusiasm she made it a most memorable day, and took us to the place on the Somme where Robert Graves received his near-fatal wound.















     And here, to close, are some more images from the Conference including (extreme left) Patrick Quinn, of the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts USA, who spoke on 'The Literary Ramifications of the Great War on Robert Graves: Goodbye to What Still Goes On'; and (extreme right) Fran Brearton, of Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland, who spoke very brilliantly on the subject of 'Revising the Revival: Graves's The White Goddess'

I cannot close without mentioning that my old friends Professor Colin Wells and his wife Kate (daughter of Richard Hughes) were also at the Conference, where Colin, with his formidable learning and sound judgment gave a most memorable paper on "'The Eagle of the Twentieth': The Experience of War in I Claudius and Count Belisarius". If anyone took a photograph of Colin or of Colin and Kate, I would very much like to add it to this page. And please let me know of any errors!