<p>The Ballad of John Clare tells the story of twelve momentous months in the early life of John Clare. We see him courting his childhood sweetheart, labouring in the fields, having his first sexual encounter and playing the fiddle with the village band. Above all we see him at one with the landscape that would be his life-long inspiration. However, this is no rural idyll. The enclosures are about to begin, taking the village land held in common ...