One of the important stated objectives of the John Clare Society is ‘continuing publication of [Clare’s] works to promote a wider appreciation.’ A crucial avenue has been through the sale of books, and some other items. Central to that task has been the Society’s Sales Officers. Although the Society has long promoted book sales, its first credited Sales Officer was the late Peter Moyse in … Continue reading In praise of Sales Officers
This is the text of the annual report given to the annual general meeting of the John Clare Society on Saturday 11 July 2026 by Dr Mike Mecham, Chair of the Society. The text can also be downloaded as a PDF. WELCOME A warm welcome to you all to this lovely and now familiar church of St Botolph’s for another AGM, and Festival, of the … Continue reading John Clare Society AGM 2026: Chair’s report
Award-winning poet Paul Farley on John Clare’s The Lament of Swordy-Well. Continue reading Paul Farley and The Lament of Swordy-Well
Important change to 2026 John Clare Festival timetable: the organisers are sorry to announce that due to the adverse weather, the Friday (10 July) afternoon walk ‘A Walk to See Betsey’ at 2pm has been cancelled. Find out more about the 2026 Festival. Continue reading Festival walk cancelled
The 2026 issue of the John Clare Society Journal is out now. Issue 45, edited by Professor Simon Kővesi, includes the following articles: Plus reviews, contributor details and abbreviations. The Journal is sent free to all members of the John Clare Society. To join us, please complete and submit the membership application to be found here. Continue reading John Clare Society Journal 2026
The Annual General Meeting of the John Clare Society will take place in St. Botolph’s Church, Helpston on Saturday 11 July 2026 at 10.30 a.m. The full agenda and the minutes of the 2025 AGM are in the PDF document available to download here. Continue reading AGM agenda 2026 and 2025 minutes
Introducing a lecture by John Clare Society President Professor John Goodridge. A video of the lecture can be viewed here and a transcript is available to download. Continue reading Video: Reading by glow worm: the struggles of labouring-class poets
I have been researching the village folk, with whom John Clare lived, for several years now and publishing my research in my essay series ‘John Clare’s Contemporaries’, so I loved this poetry collection. It focuses primarily on the lives of non-literary and non-literate people that Clare knew well; people who’ve tended to be marginalised in other collections and histories. Poems such as ‘To the memory of James … Continue reading Clare’s People: review by Nic Wilson
Welcome to the new website of the John Clare Society. Whether you are just discovering the poetry of John Clare or are an established expert in the field, we hope you will find much here of value and interest. The new site includes everything you would have found on the old one and much more besides. Among the resources carried over, we can give you … Continue reading New website for the Society
Northampton artist Tamsyn Payne exhibiting her painting of green service cabinets, including some attributed words from John Clare. Tamsyn’s work forms part of a project titled Northampton Cabinet Art, launched in July 2025, which aims to ‘bring joy to Northampton one cabinet at a time’ by enabling local artists to decorate the usually dark olive green metal or plastic cabinets used by media companies to … Continue reading ‘To look on past joys…’
The John Clare Society 
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