David Jones (artist-poet) he invented later in life, which he termed "painted inscriptions", and these exert a continuing influence on calligraphers. Although he had been trying to write about his wartime experiences since 1928, it was not until 1937 that Jones published his first literary treatment of the conflict. "In Parenthesis", which was published by Faber and Faber with an introduction (in 1961) by T. S. Eliot, is a mixture of verse and prose-lines but the rich language establishes it as poetry, which is how Jones himself considered it. Jones's literary debut won praise from critics and from fellow-poets such as Eliot and
T. S. Eliot for the authorship of one scene and the choruses. George Bell, the Bishop of Chichester, had been instrumental in connecting Eliot with producer E. Martin Browne for the production of "The Rock", and later commissioned Eliot to write another play for the Canterbury Festival in 1935. This one, "Murder in the Cathedral", concerning the death of the martyr, Thomas Becket, was more under Eliot's control. Eliot biographer Peter Ackroyd comments that "for [Eliot], "Murder in the Cathedral" and succeeding verse plays offered a double advantage; it allowed him to practice poetry but it also offered a convenient home for his