The lost works of a Great War poet, which he didn’t live to see published, are about to be celebrated in a new book by a Cumbrian author and an eminent military historian and sports writer.
Zoe Gilbert and Stephen Cooper have written Chasing the Phantom: the lost words of war poet Nowell Oxland after discovering his beautiful and emotive descriptions of the Lake District during a museum research project.
Zoe had been searching for Cumberland voices to commemorate 100 years since the end of the Great War. As part of her work, she came across Nowell Oxland from Alston Moor, who had one published poem, Outward Bound, also called Farewell, printed anonymously in The Times on 18 August 1915.
Sadly, he never lived to see this short moment of fame, as he had died at Gallipoli nine days earlier.
Zoe discovered that poem had been sent to the newspaper by his friend and mentor Amy Hawthorn – but her identity and the location of the rest of Oxland’s work were seemingly lost in the decades which followed.
Chasing the Phantom describes the poet’s early life, through to university at Oxford, before enlisting in the Border Regiment, and also shares his unpublished poems and stories. It reveals how, during Summer vacations on Alston Moor, Amy and Nowell had become friends and, when he died she became his literary executor and published a small private edition of Nowell’s work, just one known copy of which survives.
Zoe said: “Oxland’s inspiration was predominantly Cumberland. His work is deeply rooted in place and ranges from the darkly gothic and supernatural to the comic.
“It has been a moving project charting the journey of Nowell and Amy’s connections to Alston Moor, Newcastle and the Lake District, and the mystery of what happened to his lost work.”
Stephen said: “Nowell Oxland is one of the lost generation of the Great War and his promise was cut short, as he died aged only 24.
“Farewell is a masterful poem. The title was deemed too gloomy by the editor of The Times so it became Outward Bound. It’s a heart-felt longing for the landscape and home he would never return to. We’re so pleased to share his work, and his and Amy’s stories, with the world.”
Chasing the Phantom will be on sale from Monday 3 November from The New Bookshop, Cockermouth, The Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere and Bookends in Keswick and Carlisle. It is also available online from Amazon or Waterstones or directly from thornandhawpublications.co.uk. Profits from Chasing the Phantom will go to support Fix the Fells, maintaining the landscapes Oxland loved and wrote about, and Alston Moor Historical Society, for their archive and conservation work.
Farewell, or Outward Bound, by Nowell Oxland
There’s a waterfall I’m leaving
Running down the rocks in foam,
There’s a pool for which I’m grieving
Near the water-ouzel’s home;
And it’s there that I’d be lying
With the heather close at hand
And the curlews faintly crying
‘Mid the wastes of Cumberland.
Historic photo credit: Courtesy of the Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford
