Zennor in Darkness: From the Women’s Prize-Winning Author of A Spell of Winter

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I was born in December 1952, in Yorkshire, the second of four children. My father was the eldest of twelve, and this extended family has no doubt had a strong influence on my life, as have my own children. In a large family you hear a great many stories. You also come to understand very early that stories hold quite different meanings for different listeners, and can be recast from many viewpoints. Overall, I found it very generic. Aside from the design of the details, the story could take place anywhere and anytime. Also, I suspect that Ms Dunmore is one of those writers who cater mainly to a conservative female audience. My mother would probably very much enjoy this kind of writing. Whilst the majority of the novel is told using the third person omniscient perspective, the use of diary entries written in Clare's voice are effective. Using this technique, Dunmore shows a more tender side of her, and it is also, of course, far more revealing than she is able to be in her public life. Snippets of first person perspective, and thoughts of individual characters, have been woven throughout. Sometimes asides are given, or reflections between snatches of dialogue. Separate characters are focused upon in individual chapters, and we are thus able to see the rich tapestry of those who live within Zennor, some of whom are real historical figures, and others of which have been imagined by Dunmore. DH Lawrence is an outspoken critic of the war. He is horrified and repulsed by it as much as he is enchanted and fascinated by Clare Coyne, not least because he feels Frieda is in need of female company. My only gripe about Zennor in Darkness is the cliche at the end. Of course I'm not going to provide spoilers but think about it...what befalls beautiful and naive young girls new to love and sex? Hmmmmm...

I have never read a Helen Dunmore novel, and never been to Cornwall. I was attracted to this book mainly because of the presence of DH Lawrence. And the book title sounds very pretty.Francis is a bitter man whose life has steadily declined since the death of Clare’s mother. He feels himself above the coarseness of the locals, his perceived position in local society higher than the fisherman and farmers and drapers. But it also confers an isolation. I highly recommend Talking to the Dead (1996) in addition to Zennor in Darkness. I've yet to read all her other novels, so stay tuned! Newer titles include The Betrayal (2010), Counting the Stars (2008), and House of Orphans (2006). Like with her other works of fiction, Zennor in Darkness has a thread of the gothic and the forbidden running though it and this book is particularly melancholy because of the setting. Modern readers will have had no experience with the horrors of WW1 and what it did to communities and individuals, and although this book doesn’t take place in the trenches the book captures so much of that horrible period in history. The protagonists' journey towards redemption and self-discovery is expertly portrayed, making for a truly moving read. In December 1915, DH Lawrence and his German wife, Frieda, moved to Zennor, Cornwall. His novel, The Rainbow had recently been banned in the UK for obscenity. This novel isn’t just about Lawrence though. It’s a beautifully imagined portrait of community life in south Cornwall during World War I.

During the 1980s and early 1990s I taught poetry and creative writing, tutored residential writing courses for the Arvon Foundation and took part in the Poetry Society's Writer in Schools scheme, as well as giving readings and workshops in schools, hospitals, prisons and every other kind of place where a poem could conceivably be welcome. I also taught at the University of Glamorgan, the University of Bristol's Continuing Education Department and for the Open College of the Arts.

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Clare, a young local woman artist, nevertheless strikes up a friendship with the couple. Later on, she has sex on the beach with her cousin. Then he dies in WWI. She has his baby. People say that DH Lawrence seduced her, which provides the smokescreen to oust the two outsiders. In her debut novel, Zennor in Darkness, Helen Dunmore imagines a friendship between the Lawrences and a local girl, Clare Coyne. It is the nearing the end of World War 1, 1917, when the story takes place and suspicion and paranoia are rampant, so the fact that Lawrence’s wife is German and Lawrence himself is vehemently opposed to the war is the cause of much consternation and rumour mongering among the locals. As often expected with these types of novels, we read about Clare's coming-of-age as a young woman as she is introduced to love, violence, sex, friendships, humanity, and various bohemian arts. You may shrug and roll your eyes at this because after all, aren't all coming-of-age novels practically the same?! But...Dunmore is always magnificent because her characters are so vulnerable and just HUMAN. We read the inner monologues of many characters but mainly Clare, and it's these private thoughts that really hold heavy on our hearts. Aww www....you may say, but it's entirely true. For those of us who have never felt the impacts of war during our lifetime, Zennor in Darkness is jarring, scary, and really makes you put the book down to run and kiss your loved ones. The novel really makes you appreciate life. Poetry was very important to me from childhood. I began by listening to and learning by heart all kinds of rhymes and hymns and ballads, and then went on to make up my own poems, using the forms I’d heard. Writing these down came a little later. I am a long-time fan of Dunmore and have read several of her novels including The Greatcoat, A Spell of Winter, Talking to the Dead, Your Blue-Eyed Boy , and With Your Crooked Heart and one collection of short stories, Ice Cream. All her work has something in common: the writing is beautiful. Dunmore began her career as a poet and it shows, but not at the expense of plot. Her work is not a case of style over substance.

Asked about the appearance of D. H. Lawrence in the novel, Dunmore explained "Their story needed to be told. We know the bare bones of what happened – but what was it like for him and Frieda in this landscape? The details intrigued me: Lawrence creating a garden, growing things like salsify, getting in tons of manure. He knew how to do practical things – the ironing, the washing – and his combination of day-to-day good sense and the life of the mind fascinated me. I felt there were some interesting things about that particular period and about what turned him against England." [2] Reception [ edit ] Helen Dunmore is underrated and NOT to be missed! I knew there was a reason I added her entire bibliography to my wish list months ago. Yet the dark tide of gossip and innuendo means that Zennor is neither a place of recovery nor of escape . . . He is lost to her. He is a thousand miles away, hearing the guns, seeing the ring of faces round him and knowing their chances. The vivid reminder of just how tough life was on the Home Front. We all know how terrible WW1 was for everyone affected but every so often you come across something that really makes you feel it, and there were such moments during Zennor in Darkness. One moment that comes to mind is in the first chapter funnily enough - it's mentioned that a peripheral character, the mother of a soldier, had happend to be sitting outside her house catching some sun when she was 'forced to watch the telegraph boy on his bicycle as he rode down the street' - obviously we know what news he was delivering. There are brilliant quotes from later on in the book that so successfully capture a feeling of helplessness when faced with the omnipotent, runaway-train nature of the war as it gathered its (increasingly aimless seeming) momentum sweeping the country devouring young men.

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I particularly enjoyed the way the author interweaves multiple narratives to create a complex and compelling story arc. The Lawrences’ relationship is also under strain – the whispering about Frieda’s nationality is becoming a clamour and she is accused of signalling to the prowling U-boats. DH Lawrence’s anti-war stance is not endearing him either, even though many of the locals are doing whatever they can to keep their men away from the war.