It must be hard for authors on book tours. You have just 40 minutes to speak on a talented but little-known First World War poet whose reputation remains overshadowed by anthologised greats like Owen and Sassoon, and you must avoid the traps of simply giving a dull biographical sketch or else just saying "buy my book to find out more"? In her talk yesterday Jean Wilson did well. She managed to steer a course that explained Rosenberg's life and work in a stimulating way. She did it by setting him in the context of other artists of the time and showing how Rosenberg's Jewish upbringing gave him an advantage in his unconventional use of English in his poems. (Joseph Conrad comes to mind as another who came to the language late and wrote the better for it).

It would be nice to get away from automatically classifying authors in Eng. Lit. straight away in terms of class distinction. (In today's classless world it seems that class matters more than ever.) In fact Rosenberg was not the only war poet who served in the ranks as opposed to the admittedly greater number of "officer class" poets. You only have to think of Edward Thomas, Alan Seeger and Wilfred Gibson to see that the direct experience of the private soldier was celebrated in great verse that come out of the First World War.

Rosenberg remains largely unknown in the city of his birth. Perhaps we might celebrate the 120th anniversary of his birth in some way: a plaque, a picture in the City Art Gallery (are any of Rosenberg's paintings or drawings in any gallery in Bristol?), even linking with the film idea if that comes to fruition. The First World War retains a powerful hold over our collective sense of history and for that reason Rosenberg should join Dirac, Slim and other local heroes whose extraordinary lives began in ordinary houses and streets in Bristol.