Author Henry Williamson is best known for his nature writing and his novel, Tarka the Otter.

He served in the Great War on the Western Front and wrote endlessly about the subject.

Who was he? And what does his work tell us about the old front line?

We've looked at Great War authors and writers in some previous episodes of the podcast. We've often used them to tie their stories, whether they be memoirs or fiction,

together to help us understand a wider aspect of the landscape of the Great War,

perhaps tell us something about a particular battlefield.

In this podcast, I want to do something slightly different and look at one single author.

And that author is Henry Williamson.

I'm sitting in now looking at a pile of my Henry Williamson books on the table in front of me, the novels that he wrote about the years of

the Great War. They're like old friends to me. They've been part of my Great War story, my connection

to the Great War

for many, many decades, and I've carried versions of them, old paperbacks around the

battlefields, and I've tramped across the ground, whether on my own or with friends, looking at

those battlefields through the eyes of Williamson's writing

and often standing there reading out sections of his books

that describe the part of the old front line that we're standing by.

His writing is rich, it has incredible depth,

and the amount of detail that you find in his books really is quite incredible.

He's one of the finest Great War writers, one of the finest that we don't know,

because I suspect many of you listening to this podcast have never read a book by Henry Williamson

and perhaps have never even heard of his name.

He's now a forgotten voice of that war.

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