The Dark Lantern (A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight)

The Dark Lantern (1951) was the first of Henry Williamson's fifteen-volume A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight spanning the years from the late Victorian period to the Second World War. In it we meet Richard Maddison, a countryman working in London as a City clerk, struggling to make do on a few shillings a week. He falls for Hetty Turner, youngest daughter of a prosperous merchant, but her father rates Richard an unsuitable suitor.

'There is magic in Henry Williamson's novel . . . which raises it right out of the family saga class. The magic is of the steam train age of South London which is so lovingly described. ' John Betjeman, Daily Telegraph

'Williamson's style is romantic, though rarely sentimental, and his sensuous response to nature is fresh and surprising. ' Anthony Burgess, Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939