Of Babylon, led by a child. his tears run down his beard
The ever-present genius of William Blake will be the subject of a series of literary walks this summer in London. Following the pandemic hiatus, Niall McDevitt returns with ‘Five August Blake Walks’ to take place on the five consecutive Sundays of August 2021. McDevitt, an Irish poet resident in London for 30 years, believes that the best way of getting to know Blake is by going out into the streets that he lived, studied, worked and died in, and which he wrote and painted into his mystical works. This series explores new Blakean subject matter and new sites in-depth, from Thomas Paine to the River Tyburn, Emmanuel Swedenborg to Bedlam. The final walk will compare and contrast William Blake and Francis Bacon as Britain’s two greatest painters, albeit with opposing visions. The ‘poetopographical’ walking lectures will also continue to focus on Blake’s prophetic boo