Noticed that there is a program on BBC 4 Thursday evening about Keith Douglas, poet and author at 21.00 hrs. Apparantly contains interviews with his friends, he served in the desert and was killed in Normandy with the Sherwood Rangers
Just bumping this for those who might have missed the original post. I know Douglas' poetry isn't to everybody's taste, but it looks like an interesting programme. BBC4 are following it with a repeat of Jeremy Paxman's docudrama on Wilfred Owen, first shown in 2007.
BBC iPlayer - Battlefield Poet: Keith Douglas Documentary exploring the life and work of Keith Douglas, one of Britain's finest poets of the Second World War. Whilst the poets of 1914-18 are generally widely published, those writing during the Second World War are largely forgotten. Poet Owen Sheers documents Douglas's extraordinary talents and combat experiences as a tank commander, from the epic battles of the Western Desert to his death in Normandy three days after D-Day.
Captain KEITH CASTELLAIN DOUGLAS 170611, 2nd Derbyshire Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps attd. Nottinghamshire Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps who died age 24 on 09 June 1944 Son of Keith Sholto Douglas and Marie Josephine Douglas, of Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex. A noted War Poet. Exhibitioner of Merton College, Oxford, where he was a student of Edmund Blunden. Remembered with honour TILLY-SUR-SEULLES WAR CEMETERY Grave/Memorial Reference: I. E. 2. CWGC :: Casualty Details Alamein to Zem Zem - Douglas memoir WWII Keith Douglas - Poems, Biography, Quotes
I'm really looking orward to the programme, Keith Douglas is my favourite poet of the Second World War.
Douglas is the best of the war poets, in my opinion. One of the few poetry topics I enjoyed at school.
For my English A level dissertation, I chose the War Poetry of Wilfred Owen. I have no idea why, as I much preferred that of Douglas. He served with a friends father.
