The Modern Novel

Biography

Henry Williamson is best remembered for his nature books, in particular Tarka the Otter and Salar the Salmon. This is unfortunate for, worthy though these books are, he made a much greater contribution to English literature. His Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight was mentioned in Anthony Burgess’ Best 99 novels in English since 1939 though Burgess, with his usual critical inadequacy, says that”no reader who ignores the second half can be wholly blamed.” This is unjust to Williamson, as some of his finest writing occurs in the second half of the Chronicle . What Burgess is referring to are the major weaknesses Williamson had as a human being and which influenced his writing.

His first weakness was support for the Fascists, the British ones at first but also the German ones (he met Hitler). This support, naturally, meant that he was severely criticised in Britain both during and after the war. However, a close reading of his works reveals that Williamson is, as George Painter has rightly pointed out,”the last romantic”, in a tradition, stretching from Blake, Shelley and Jefferies. This reflects Williamson’s close attachment to the countryside and to things English which is both unfashionable and dangerously close to fascism. Williamson was a political naïve and he saw in fascism a support for these values, in comparison with the then current political alternatives. He failed, of course, to see the dark side of fascism. (In this he was not alone among 20th century writers – Francis Stuart, Céline, P. G. Wodehouse and Ezra Pound are four other obvious examples.)

His second weakness was his teenage crushes. He used to fall in love with attractive young women all the time – he called them Barleybrights – to the detriment of his various wives and children. As he got older, they got younger. Not only did he fail to see the negative effect this behaviour had on his family, he did not see the effect it had on him. Both these weakness are clearly evident in Phillip Maddison, the hero of the Chronicle .

Williamson made his living from his writing, punctuated by occasional attempts at farming. As well as the Chronicle and the nature books, he left behind many other writings, including, in particular, The Flax of Dream tetralogy. As well as his teenage crushes and his love for nature, his work was coloured by his poor relationship with his father and his experiences in World War I. Like many participants in World War I, Williamson was profoundly affected by what he saw and the treatment of the soldiers. When the war ended, he was determined to write about his experiences and the suffering he saw, though it was not till the 1950s that he finally published the first volume of the Chronicle, five of the fifteen books of which are devoted to his experiences in World War I.

Williamson should be remembered for more than his nature books and his fascism. They don’t write books like that anymore. That may be just as well but the loss is undoubtedly ours.

Books about Henry Williamson

1979 Ted Hughes: Henry Williamson: A Tribute
Brocard (ed.) 1980 Sewell: Henry Williamson – The Man, The Writings – A Symposium
1982 Daniel Farson: Henry: An Appreciation of Henry Williamson
1995 Anne Williamson: Henry Williamson – Tarka and the Last Romantic (the standard biography, written by his daughter-in-law)
1998 Anne Williamson: A Patriot’s Progress; Henry Williamson and the First World War

Other links

Henry Williamson
Henry Williamson: Biography
The Henry Williamson Society
Henry Williamson and Fascism