The Henry Williamson Society

Henry Williamson and his work – the views of critics

The writer Henry Williamson was born in London in 1895.

Naturalist, soldier, journalist, farmer, motor enthusiast and author of over fifty books, his descriptions of nature and the First World War have been highly praised for their accuracy.

He is best known as the author of Tarka the Otter, which won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1928 and was filmed in 1977. By one of those extraordinary coincidences, Henry Williamson died while the crew were actually filming the death scene of Tarka.

Here in the Henry Williamson Society's website you can explore the man, his life, and his place in English Literature and history.

If you enjoy browsing through the pages of this website and wish to support the work of the Henry Williamson Society in furthering the appreciation of Henry Williamson’s writings, please consider either becoming a member of the Society or making a donation towards the maintenance of our website.

FRONT PAGE NEWS:

NEW! — On the recent (10th) HWS visit to the Battlefields of the First World War, members visited several new cemeteries and some also previously visited, among them the Thiepval Memorial. Crosses were laid at the grave of Edward Thomas, who had connections with HW, and also at the grave of Rupert Bryers, who was at Colfe's Grammar School with HW and a close friend. He was killed in action on 15 September 1916, aged 20, and buried at Lesboeufs, where a tribute was paid and a letter from Rupert to HW written in 1913 was read out. The final visit was to the German Cemetery at Neuville St Vaast, which HW had visited in 1925 and been so forcibly struck by the sight of 36,000 black crosses stretching out before him, which he wrote about in his book The Wet Flanders Plain. Today there are 44,830 Germans buried in the cemetery: the sight of the black crosses is just as powerful now as then.

********************

NEW! — Members enjoyed an interesting Study Day with talks on the subject of The Gale of the World, with background information and much discussion. There will be a full report in the Society Newsletter in due course.

********************

NEW! — We have begun the conversion of our publications to e-books, both as a means of keeping available out of print titles and to attract readers who possess Kindles, Nook and Kobi readers, iPads, tablets etc., and who enjoy taking their library with them wherever they are. The first six are available now, just click on the E-books button on our main menu bar.

********************

NEW! — We are pleased to bring to your attention an important new resource on our website, A Life's Work. This is a descriptive bibliography of Henry Williamson's writings, title by title. Written by Anne Williamson and utilising rare archive material, it is not a bibliography in the strict sense of the word, but literarily a description of each book – its plot; the circumstances behind Henry’s writing of it; Henry’s life at the time; and its critical reception. Anne Williamson is uniquely placed to write this, having both such an intimate knowledge of the writings and access to Henry’s journals, diaries and archive material; we are fortunate indeed in being able to work with her in publishing this work here. It is planned to add books at relatively frequent intervals, as they are completed. Anne has now covered the The Flax of Dream, and its four constituent volumes, The Beautiful Years, Dandelion Days, The Dream of Fair Women and The Pathway,are now online, together with The Star-born, a short entry on HW's early contributions to The Weekly Dispatch as a novice reporter, and some of the 'nature' books. She has also started her consideration of A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight and has completed The Dark Lantern, the first book in the series.

********************

Anne Williamson has recently written an illuminating and interesting article about Henry Williamson's beliefs, In Search of Truth – Henry Williamson’s credo. We feel that the article deserves a wide readership and are very pleased to present it here.

********************

November 2012 — The Tarka Challenge! It has just come to our notice that eight-year-old Rudi, whose favourite book is Tarka the Otter, has set himself the challenge of actually seeing, and if possible photographing, all the animals listed in the book, which he has counted as comprising 89 birds, 54 land-based animals, 120 plants and 56 aquatic organisms. This young naturalist began his challenge at the beginning of 2012, and has built up an impressive list of sightings. How is he doing? Follow his progress on his blog!

********************

June 2012 — The haunting music that accompanied David Cobham's 1973 BBC film The Vanishing Hedgerows, which featured Henry Williamson returning to his Norfolk farm, was composed specially for the documentary by Paul Lewis. 'Norfolk Idyll', the concert work based on the score, has been released in its original orchestration for flute and harp on the CD Summer was in August – British Flute Music, performed by Rachel Smith, flute, and Jenny Broome, harp, Campion Cameo 2030, available from Amazon. Four other pieces by Paul Lewis are also included among the twelve tracks.

The sheet music of 'Norfolk Idyll' bears the dedication “In memory of Henry Williamson”, and is published by Broadbent and Dunn, available direct or through music shops.

The work has also been recorded in a version for harmonica and harp under its previous title 'Norfolk Rhapsody' on the CD Serenade and Dance – the Romantic Harmonica Music of Paul Lewis, performed by James Hughes, harmonica, and Elizabeth Jane Baldry, harp, Campion Cameo 2024, again available from Amazon.

********************

February 2012 — Last September Manchester University Press published Adam Reed's academic monograph Literature and Agency in English Fiction Reading: A Study of the Henry Williamson Society. The recommended retail price is a steep £65, though it can be bought slightly cheaper from Amazon. 'This book represents the first anthropological study of fiction reading and the first ethnography of British literary culture. It is the outcome of long-term engagement with a set of solitary readers who belong to a single literary society.' Many members of the Society were interviewed by Adam over a period of years, though in a manner reminiscent of Henry Williamson himself, he has disguised their identities. His non-literary approach to a literary society makes for most interesting reading.

********************

OUT OF PRINT JOURNALS: The contents of journals now out of print (nos 1 to 30) have been scanned. Articles are available as PDFs from either the Journal Contents page or the Author and Article Title indexes, and may be downloaded or printed as desired. While this service is free of charge, those availing themselves of it may wish to make an appropriate donation by using the Donate button above.

********************

Members of the Society are invited to submit their favourite passage (200–750 words) from any of Henry Williamson's books for inclusion in the new webpage that we are developing of extracts from his works.

Henry Williamson and his work: a selection of the views of writers and critics, in no particular order:–

Ted Hughes, address at the memorial service for HenryWilliamson, 1 December 1977, on Tarka the Otter	In the confrontations of creature and creature, of creature and object, of creature and fate – he made me feel the pathos of actuality in the natural world . . . I now know that only the finest writers are ever able to evoke it . . . It is not usual to consider [Henry Williamson] as a poet. But I believe he was one of the truest English poets of his generation.

Michael Morpurgo, Introduction to Salar the Salmon, 2010	It is a rare gift indeed for a storyteller to be poet as much as a storyteller, to tell a tale so deeply engaging that the reader wants to know what will happen and never want it to end, and yet at the same time tells it in such a way as to leave a reader wide-eyed with amazement at the sheer intensity of feeling that can be induced by the word-magic of a poet. Henry Williamson is just such a story-maker poet.

George D. Painter	Here is an unrolling map of the labyrinth of three generations, our fathers, ourselves and our children, and the thread leading to the mystery - monster or divinity? - at the centre. In my belief ... the whole cycle [of A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight] will ultimately be recognized as the great historical novel of our time, its subject as the total experience of twentieth-century man.

John Middleton Murry	This will be in its entirety one of the most remarkable English novels of our time ... It is amazingly rich in all the living detail of a swiftly changing society; the characters are drawn with such loving sympathy and such firmness of imaginative outline that we are entirely absorbed by their vicissitudes. We are apprehensive for them, we are relieved; we rejoice and are sorrowful; we are angry and we understand and we laugh and laugh again. To be able to do this with us is the novelist's supreme gift ... I believe it is high time we awoke to the splendour and scope of his effort and achievement in A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. Begin with The Dark Lantern and read on; you will be the richer for it.

T.E. Lawrence to Edward Garnett, 1928	If I'd known he was so practiced I wouldn't have dared write him.

Malcolm Elwin, 1957	He emerges as one of the most impressively gifted and lavishly creative among writers of modern fiction.

James Hanley, on Young Phillip Maddison	How well Mr Williamson conveys all the secret thoughts and doings of boys, living lives that are all heights and depths. Magically he suggests the era by subtle description.

Allan Wykes, review of The Innocent Moon in the Sunday Times	To follow Mr Williamson through all the tones and tempers of his chronicle is to emerge with a sense – insistent and triumphant – of having been brushed by experience.

Michael Bradbury, review of The Power Of The Dead in Punch	What emerges is a deep sense of truthfulness and accuracy and a complexity of experience.

Walter de la Mare to Putnams, 1926	I have always thought that Williamson had a tinge of that very rare quality, or whatever it may be, called genius; and I feel convinced that in time it will be more fully recognised . . .

George D. Painter, 1959	It will be among the accepted facts of English literary history that our only two great novelists writing in the second quarter of the twentieth century, after the deaths of Lawrence and Joyce, were John Cowper Powys and Henry Williamson.

L.A.G. Strong, 1945	Few writers hold so surely the balance between outer and inner truth; fewer so generously share their vision with their reader.

John Galsworthy to Edward Garnett, 1926	Do you know the work of Henry Williamson? It's uneven but at it's best extraordinarily good I think.

John Betjeman, review of The Dark Lantern in the Daily Telegraph	There is a magic about this book . . . this excursion into a late Victorian suburb and merchant materialism is unexpected and it is as genuine and affectionate as it is accomplished.

General Sir Hubert Gough, letter to Henry Williamson	I have re-read your story of our Fifth Army [A Test to Destruction], and was greatly moved. It made me realise once again what a wonderful people the British are.

*Times Literary Supplement* review of The Golden Virgin	It is difficult to know which to admire the more, the skill of the characterisation or the art by which the character is subordinated to the theme without contrivance and without loss of humanity . . . The contrast between the tenderness of youth and the cruelty of war is most effectively described.

George D. Painter, review of How Dear is Life in The Listener	Mr Williamson's prose is like sunlight and clear air; and then, when necessary, it has the taste of fear in the mouth, the terrible beauty of life on the edge of the abyss.

Kenneth Allsop, review of It Was The Nightgale in the Daily Mail	The sad beauty of the love story laces a huge exquisitely worked tapestry of period and people.

Ernest Wycherley, review of A Solitary War in the Daily Express	This astonishing sequence [A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight]. It is a major mark he is making on the modern novel.

Frank Swinnerton, 1937	Henry Williamson . . . seems to spend his days up to his waist or neck in a Devonshire river, watching the habits of otters, salmon and other wild creatures.

We will add to these opinions from time to time. Submissions to the webmaster of further examples are welcomed.

Please note: Work is ongoing on the Research Centre pages. This site is actively maintained, and new content is added regularly, in the form of full-text articles from journals now out of print. Links to these can be found on the Research Centre Author and Title pages, and the Journal Contents page for nos. 1–30.

Your comments and suggestions are valued, please email the webmaster.

Online Bookshop

Shopping Cart

Cart empty