|
BOOKS BY HENRY WILLIAMSON published by the Society
For many years the Society has been publishing collections of Henry Williamson's newspaper and magazine articles. These, and other publications, are listed below, in the order of their publication, with the most recent first. Click on the thumbnails of the covers to bring up larger and more detailed images.
Unless otherwise stated, all books are by Henry Williamson.
All twenty of our publications are available as e-books, and most are still available in print – please visit our Online Bookshop, where we also list other books and material distributed by the Society.
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
A CLEAR WATER STREAM
Introduction by John Bailey, coloured frontispiece and other illustrations by Mick Loates, pp. xiv, 218, hardback, 2008, £13.99; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-30-8 ISBN: 987-1-873507-50-6 (Kindle) ISBN: 987-1-873507-51-3 (EPUB)
The text to this new edition has been completely reset, and the opportunity has been taken to incorporate a few amendments made by HW which were omitted from the 1975 edition. This may, therefore, be said to be the definitive text. A Clear Water Stream was first published in 1958, although it is set in the first half of the 1930s, when HW, Loetitia and their young family lived at Shallowford. With the cottage came a two-mile stretch of fishing on the River Bray, which runs through the deer park close by, and the book tells the story of HW’s relationship with the river, its fish and its wildlife. This classic of country writing has long been out of print. |
|
|
|
RECREATING A LOST WORLD: Henry Williamson and Folkestone 1919-20: Fact into Fiction, by Anne Williamson Illustrated, pp. 28, stapled booklet, 2008, £2.50; e-book, 2014, £1.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-29-2 ISBN: 978-1-873507-68-1 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-69-8 (EPUB)
Recreating a Lost World explores the real Folkestone of 1919-20 and its personalities, identifying the real-life models for fictional characters in The Dream of Fair Women and showing how Henry Williamson translated place and people – and his own experiences – into this and other novels. It is illustrated with eleven unique photographs from the Henry Williamson Literary Estate’s archive and other illustrations. |
|
 |
ATLANTIC TALES: Contributions to The Atlantic Monthly, 1927–1947 Introduction by Richard Williamson, afterword by Anne Williamson, coloured frontispiece by Mick Loates and 21 illustrations by C.F. Tunnicliffe, pp. xi, 240, hardback, 2007 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-44-5 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-26-1 (EPUB)
An anthology of the very best of HW’s writing, with examples of his nature sketches, short stories (including ‘A Crown of Life’, perhaps his best), and tales of his later experiences when farming in North Norfolk during the late 1930s and the early years of the Second World War. Central to the collection is ‘Salar the Salmon’, a condensed version of HW's bestselling novel which successfully preserves – in the Atlantic’s phrase – the ‘pulse and vitality’ of the original. |
|
|
|
STUMBERLEAP, and Other Devon Writings: Contributions to the Daily Express, 1915–1935 Introduction by John Gregory, 40 illus., pp. x, 170, paperback, 2005, £9.50; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-24-7 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-46-9 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-47-6 (EPUB)
Beginning with the entire text of the Express’s article on the famous 1914 Christmas Truce, which featured HW’s letter to his parents describing the event, there follows some of his earliest published writings, from 1921 onwards, with nature essays and sketches of village life in Georgeham. The book also includes some of his finest writing on the Great War, with the two series ‘And This Was Ypres’ and ‘The Last 100 Days’, together with the moving ‘I Believe in the Men Who Died’. It finishes with some of HW’s classic short stories: ‘Stumberleap’ (which the Express called ‘The Finest Animal Story Ever Written’), ‘Whatever Has Happened?’, and ‘The Heller’. While much (though not all) of this material was later used by HW in his books, they have all long been out of print, and Stumberleap is an anthology which everyone will enjoy. |
|
|
|
CHRONICLES OF A NORFOLK FARMER: Contributions to the Daily Express, 1937–1939 Introduction by John Gregory, ix, 166pp, 30 illus., paperback, 2004 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-32-2 (Kindle)
Covering his last months at Shallowford in Devon, the move to north Norfolk, the difficulties first encountered by a total beginner to farming, the disastrous crash in the price of barley in 1938, and the opening months of the Second World War, these 45 articles by HW form a fascinating contemporary record of those times. Ten million Express readers enjoyed them then – now you can join them. Also included are four of HW's classic short stories set in Devon. |
|
|
|
HEART OF ENGLAND: Contributions to the Evening Standard, 1939–1941 Introduction by John Gregory, 10 illus., pp. vii, 105, paperback, 2003, reprinted 2008 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-34-6 (Kindle)
Written by HW originally as a way of paying off unexpectedly high bills during his early years of farming in Norfolk – ‘There was one thing for it: to pay off the debts by writing’ – these beautifully written articles, set in both Norfolk and Devon, are counterpointed and given immediacy by the inclusion of the evening’s headlines after each article, depicting the deteriorating international situation, and the outbreak and early days of the war. |
|
|
|
INDIAN SUMMER NOTEBOOK: A Writer's Miscellany Cover illustration by Mick Loates, pp. 94, paperback, 2001, £5.00; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-19-3 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-42-1 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-43-8 (EPUB)
A selection of work from a number of sources, including book introductions, contributions to anthologies and magazines; a series of articles in the Evening Standard from which the collection takes its title; and a significant essay. If there is a theme, it is one of people, places and events which had a far-reaching effect on HW's life – his schooldays, the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914, Richard Jefferies, Francis Thompson, his Norfolk farm and North Devon. The book is dedicated to Fr Brocard Sewell, who died on April 2, 2000 and was a champion of Henry's writing. As a tribute to Fr Sewell, his article 'Henry Williamson: Old Soldier, first printed in John O'Londons' Weekly in 1961, has been included. |
|
|
|
HENRY WILLIAMSON: A Brief Look at His Life and Writings in North Devon in the 1920s and '30s Selected and edited by Tony Evans; introduction by Anne Williamson, illus., pp. 52, stapled paperback, 2001, e-book, 2014, £2.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-70-4 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-71-1 (EPUB
This short anthology serves as an introduction to Henry Williamson’s early writings about North Devon, which established his reputation as perhaps the foremost British nature writer of the twentieth century. There are extracts from Williamson’s classic novels Tarka the Otter and Salar the Salmon, as well as from less well-known works, illustrated by contemporary photographs.
|
|
 |
WORDS ON THE WEST WIND: Selected Essays from The Adelphi, 1924–1950 Postscripts by Anne and Richard Williamson, pp. 104, paperback, 2000, £5.00; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-16-2 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-48-3 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-49-0 (EPUB)
Original copies of The Adelphi are now very scarce, and, when found, are fragile. This present selection, though not exhaustive, contains both gems and important essays that deserve resurrection; most (though not all) are by HW. Included are the five editorials by HW from the short period that he edited the magazine, and from which this book takes its title. Also included are items by James Farrar, and the distinguished poet Charles Causley. Anne Williamson contributes on the background, while Richard Williamson waxes lyrical on ‘That Damned Motorcar ’ (HW's temperamental Aston Martin). Published in the same format and style as the original Adelphi,Words on the West Wind might almost be thought of as a special, and final, issue. |
|
|
|
THE NOTEBOOK OF A NATURE-LOVER Foreword by Loetitia Williamson, illus. by Mick Loates, pp. 117, paperback, 1996, £5.00; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-10-0 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-56-8 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-57-5 (EPUB)
Recalling the Devon of sixty years ago, this is an enchanting anthology of articles originally written for the Sunday Referee while HW lived at Shallowford. Early essays in the series were collected in The Linhay on the Downs (1934), to which this now forms a perfect companion volume. |
|
|
|
GREEN FIELDS AND PAVEMENTS: A Norfolk Farmer in Wartime Introduction by Bill Williamson, illustrated by Mick Loates, pp. 174, hardback, 1995, £11.50; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-07-0 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-54-4 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-55-1 (EPUB)
Published by the Society to mark HW’s centenary, this collection of the contributions that HW wrote for the Eastern Daily Press between 1941 and 1944 makes irresistible reading. It presents a picture of life on the home front during the darker days of the war: of the countryside and its wildlife; the problems of a small farmer; and literature and art with reviews of contemporary books.
‘This is a bedside book of high quality; delightfully written and well illustrated, full of fascinating detail and description. I recommend it warmly.’ – Country Life. |
|
 |
THRENOS FOR T. E. LAWRENCE, and Other Writings Introduction by Dr Wheatley Blench, illustrated, pp. 134, paperback, 1994, £5.00; e-book, 2014, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-05-6 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-66-7 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-67-4 (EPUB)
The title essay was written in 1954, and published to pre-empt Richard Aldington’s controversial book on Lawrence. Two other important essays follow: ‘Some Nature Writers and Civilization’ (on Richard Jefferies and W.H. Hudson) which was the Wedmore Lecture given by HW to the Royal Society of Literature, and ‘In Darkest England’, the Presidential Address given to the Francis Thompson Society, telling of his discovery of Thompson’s poetry in the crater-zones of Flanders in the Great War. In addition there is a collection of scarce Prefaces and Introductions, and to conclude, the text of the letter written by T. E. Lawrence giving a detailed (and entertaining criticism) of Tarka the Otter.
The e-book is an expanded edition, with two additional prefaces. |
|
|
|
SPRING DAYS IN DEVON, and Other Broadcasts Foreword by Valerie Belsey, illustrated, pp. 124, paperback, 1992, £5.00; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-01-8 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-60-5 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-61-2 (EPUB)
During the late 1930s Henry Williamson became a broadcaster of some repute on the BBC. This is a collection of twenty-two of his talks, broadcast on the wireless between December 1935 (his very first appearance in front of the microphone) and 1954. Subjects include reminiscences from his own inimitable viewpoint of the West Country and its flora and fauna; the significance in his life of the barn owl; four talks on the lives of English animals (otter, badger, stoat and red deer); and the difficulties encountered on becoming a farmer in Norfolk. The e-book includes an Afterword, 'Henry Williamson and the BBC' by John Gregory. |
|
|
|
PEN AND PLOUGH: Further Broadcasts Introduction by John Gregory, illustrated, pp. 105, paperback, 1993, £5.00; e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-03-2(book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-62-9 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-63-6 (EPUB)
A further collection of 21 broadcast talks on the BBC, made between 1936 and 1967. Ten of these were broadcast in the BBC’s Empire Service in 1938/39 and concern the countryside and farming. Four talks are about Williamson’s ongoing struggle to bring life back to the derelict farm in Norfolk that he had bought in 1937, while a later broadcast has the intriguing title ‘On Seeing Marilyn Monroe'.
Pen and Plough, with the companion Spring Days in Devon (both available as e-books), contain all forty-three of the surviving scripts of Henry Williamson’s popular talks for the BBC. |
|
|
|
A BREATH OF COUNTRY AIR, Part One Foreword by Richard Williamson, illustrated, pp. 101, paperback, 1990 (out of print) ISBN: 978-0-9508652-8-7
A BREATH OF COUNTRY AIR, Part Two Foreword by Robert Williamson, illustrated, pp. 127, paperback, 1991; £5.00 ISBN: 978-1-873507-00-1
One-volume e-book edition, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-52-0 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-53-7 (EPUB)
Between 1937 and 1945 Henry Williamson farmed 243 acres of difficult land in North Norfolk, bringing a near-derelict farm to an A grade classification during the years of the Second World War. Throughout those years he was also writing newspaper articles, to help finance the farm. The essays contained in A Breath of Country Air – originally published in two volumes in 1990-91, now gathered in a single e-book – bring together Williamson’s weekly pieces in the London Evening Standard, written during 1944 and 1945. They are broadly concerned with day-to-day happenings on the farm, featuring particularly his two young sons Rikky and Robbie, together with other reflections on country life. Further pieces poignantly describe the end of Williamson’s farming dream, with the sale of the farm and auction of implements and the family’s move 60 miles south to Botesdale, in Suffolk.
The book concludes with a 15-part serial, ‘Quest’ (originally published in Women’s Illustrated magazine in 1946) which records the period immediately after the move. Richard and Robert Williamson – Rikky and Robbie – have written the Forewords; Richard remembers these stories ‘as a video of my beautiful years, faithfully recorded . . . I can with the greatest clarity smell the new ploughed fields, hear the owls, and see the little grey Ferguson on those far away fields of the Norfolk farm’; while for Robert, after the move to Botesdale, ‘being away at school, the holidays were greatly enjoyed, and Henry has captured the mood of these holidays, now that the strain of the farm had gone’. |
|
|
|
GENIUS OF FRIENDSHIP: 'T. E. LAWRENCE' Frontispiece, pp. 78, paperback, 1988 (out of print); e-book, 2014, £2.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-64-3 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-65-0 (EPUB)
Long out of print, this is a memoir by Henry Williamson recounting his friendship with T. E. Lawrence – ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. It was a friendship through correspondence, for the two men actually met only twice. The memoir quotes extensively from Lawrence’s letters to Williamson, which are both literary and personal in content, and make for fascinating reading. They continue up to Lawrence’s death in 1935. |
|
|
|
Illustrated, pp. 131, paperback, 1988 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-38-4 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-39-1 (EPUB)
This is a collection of 58 essays written between 1958 and 1964, and published in the Co-operative Society’s Home Magazine and, in its Out of Doors series, the Sunday Times. These short essays – personal musings on life, his children, North Devon (now known as ‘Tarka Country’) and other subjects – show HW’s descriptive powers at their best. Nowhere is this shown better than in ‘The Last Summer’, a longer piece that is an evocative personal re-creation of the last golden summer of 1914 before the outbreak of the First World War. |
|
|
|
Introduction by Richard Williamson, illustrated, pp. 104, paperback, 1987 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £3.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-36-0 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-37-7 (EPUB)
An important collection of 38 articles first published in the Daily Express between 1966 and 1971, a late flowering of HW's long relationship with the Express. Subjects range from graphic descriptions of the battles of the Somme and Vimy Ridge, written to celebrate their fiftieth anniversaries, to essays on ecology and conservation – in particular in support of banning the hunting of otters, and a trilogy of essays on the occasion of a congress of the World Wildlife Fund held in London in 1970. The late Richard Richardson, a talented wildlife artist whom HW had known in Norfolk, was commissioned to illustrate several articles, and these attractive drawings are reproduced here. |
|
|
|
THE NOVELS OF HENRY WILLIAMSON, by John Middleton Murry Introduction by Dr J. Wheatley Blench, pp. 78, 1986 (out of print); e-book, 2013, £2.50 ISBN: 978-1-873507-58-2 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-59-9 (EPUB)
This brilliant long essay by the noted literary critic John Middleton Murry, considers Henry Williamson’s novels up to 1954. Murry's essay remains essential reading for those who want to understand better Williamson’s writings. It is written in a clear, elegant style, while the literary analyses of the novels are its greatest distinction. Murry thought very highly of the early books making up A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight. |
|
|
|
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE WEEKLY DISPATCH (republished as an e-book as ON THE ROAD) pp. 54, stapled booklet, 1969, reprinted by the Society 1983, £3.95; e-book, 2013, £2.50 ISBN: 978-0-9508652-1-8 (book) ISBN: 978-1-873507-40-7 (Kindle) ISBN: 978-1-873507-41-4 (EPUB)
The very earliest published writings of HW, which appeared in the Weekly Dispatch between July 1920 and January 1921, during his short-lived Fleet Street career. They include ‘The Country Week’ (short nature sketches) and ‘On the Road’ (a weekly column on light cars offering occasionally somewhat dubious advice!). HW’s fictionalised account of this period appears in The Innocent Moon (1961). Now republished as an e-book, revised and with a new introduction by John Gregory, the book has been retitled On the Road. Buy this e-book from Amazon's Kindle Store
|
|
|
For SOCIETY JOURNALS and lists of their contents please see the Society's Journals page.
|
|
A limited quantity of back numbers of many of the annual journals are available. These are listed in our Online Bookshop. Photocopies of particular articles from out-of-print journals can be supplied on request for a reasonable price; please contact Online Bookshop Enquiries for a quotation.
|