Dandelion Days

The Flax of Dream #2

by Henry Williamson

Excerpt from Dandelion Days
My Dear Dakers, - For some time past I have been undecided whether to let you see this letter before you read the tale. My original intention was to attach it to the end of the story, lest its presence at the beginning might deter you from reading the book. Upon reflection, however, I have decided to be honest with you, to put my faith in your patience.
You may remember myself coming to see you, a year after the end of the war, with the manuscript of a book hidden in an old army blanket. The blanket was not recognisable as such, since with considerable skill I had fashioned an overcoat from it; the script I had written during three weeks of "fierce mid-nights and famishing morrows," following an almost intolerable pain. Nevertheless, you managed to read approximately 100,000 words of my tale. The kindly encouragement you gave me, the hopes you aroused, and most of all, your friendship, were directly responsible for my eventual retirement to the remote country, there to devote all my time and energy to the recasting of my whole scheme and the selection of characters and episodes that would bear their part in its presentation. I realised many things: that I might have to starve; that most things that make youth enjoyable I must forgo. (However, I made some good friends in Devon, so I did not mind having but one meal a day). It was borne upon me that one volume could not possibly contain all I had to say, unless that volume were as big as the post-war "Who's Who," and rivalry with such an immense work of fiction would be both fatuous and foolish. But we have discussed this on many occasions, and as you must be weary of it, I will not exhaust you with further reminiscence.
Willie Maddison, I imagine, is nearly eighteen years of age when he stands at the eastern edge of the spinney and bids farewell to the fields and the trees which he has known for so long.
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Genres: Fiction

325 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Henry William Williamson was an English soldier, naturalist, farmer and ruralist writer known for his natural history and social history novels, as well as for his fascist sympathies. He won the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 with his book Tarka the Otter.

Henry Williamson is best known for a tetralogy of four novels which consists of The Beautiful Years (1921), Dandelion Days (1922), The Dream of Fair Women (1924) and The Pathway (1928). These novels are collectively known as The Flax of Dream and they follow the life of Willie Maddison from boyhood to adulthood in a rapidly changing world.

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mother gave me this book when I was fourteen. It was a rare thing for her to do, in fact I don't think she's ever done it since. I don't know if she knew me well enough to predict my response or not but it has been a book that I have loved from the time I read it till now and is one of the few books which I revisit regularly.

This is the second of four books collectively called "The Flax of Dream" in which we meet and follow Willie Maddison on his journey from boyhood to adulthood and which includes his time in the trenches. In this book he is a pupil at a grammar school and, like most boys his age, he is struggling to make sense of his changing world, mind and body.

There is little similarity between Willie's life and mine and yet somehow it made such perfect sense to me. I have always found it deeply moving yet for no reason that I can iterate, or perhaps that I wish to acknowledge.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a long time, in part because the older English with its period slang can be hard to get into, and I kept putting it down after each chapter. But now in the last few chapters, I’ve raced through - this book ended on such a beautiful and moving note, and captured me profoundly in its beautiful and loving descriptions of place and of friendship. The bittersweetness of the end of school and the step into the unknown of work and future is captured incredibly well.

HUGE caveat, though. This book is a relic of a time when England was a colonial power, and the attitudes expressed by the characters towards non-Europeans are dismaying.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truth be told, I do not know what attracted me to this book. Maybe it was after reading the blurb by 'The Observer', which states:

"Gets as near to the heart of a boy as anything I have read for many years. Willie Maddison (the protagonist) is a person and a representative. His history is beautiful - and important."

I have quoted this short statement in full as I believe it says more in three sentences than an actual thesis can say about this book. I think the key word from that blurb is "beautiful". I elaborate, this is a truly beautiful bildungsroman with very perceptive and profound writing, with some of the best examples of agrarianism to be found in English literature. And it tells a profound story, an almost Dickensian story in my opinion, of a poor boy (Willie Maddison) with a big heart trying to find his place in a beautiful but unforgiving world, with a lot of psychological and philosophical growth in between (even though sometimes Willie appears not to change a lot, like a normal boy who doesn't listen to good advice).

I believe this book is an achievement in literature, which merits a better study than mine to accredit its narrative merit.