Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

BBC Radio 4 FM

Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore: Episode 5

Episode 5

BBC Radio 4 - Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore, Episode 5

Clare fears her cousin is a changed man. He is sleepless and agitated.

Her cousin has 48 hours leave. Clare can sense a change in him. She wants to know what has happened to him during the war, but John William is not ready to tell her.

Helen Dunmore’s prize-winning first novel is set in the late spring, early summer of 1917. War haunts the Cornish coast and ships are being sunk by U-boats, strangers are treated with suspicion, and newspapers are full of spy stories. 

Into this uneasy landscape, to a hamlet just outside St Ives, come DH Lawrence and his German wife, Frieda. They are hoping to escape the war-fever that grips London and also to live as cheaply as possible in a rented cottage. The pacifist Lawrence is reeling from his latest novel, The Rainbow, having been banned for obscenity, and is struggling to finish and publish its sequel, Women in Love.  

They befriend Clare Coyne, a young artist who has lived alone with her father since her mother died when she was a child. 

Written by Helen Dunmore
Read by Louise Brealey 
Abridged by Jill Waters and Isobel Creed 
Produced by Jill Waters
A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama: Historical

Drama: Relationships & Romance

Helen Dunmore's 1993 debut novel, set in Cornwall during the First World War.

Helen Dunmore's 1993 debut novel, set in Cornwall during the First World War. Read by Louise Brealey.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Zennor in Darkness by Helen Dunmore

Episode 5

Genres

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4