This Thing of Darkness

I have never been to South America but Sophie went for a couple of months in the summer.

Sophie is the hygienist who pokes around in my mouth and cleans my teeth before Kirsty (dentist) takes a look too. Conversation with both of them is one-sided making a change from me talking too much. Sophie had plenty to say about her trip but I only remember she had her ‘phone and wallet stolen, a catastrophe she made light of.

I seldom give credit to friends who recommend books. Hitherto I had not received any reading suggestions from Sophie and frankly was unsure the extent to which her literary tastes and mine would overlap. However, I took her advice and am reading This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson. The title, as so often, comes from Shakespeare. It is Prospero referring to Caliban.

“This think of darkness I Acknowledge Mine” (The Tempest, Act V, Scene1)

At first sight it is a discouraging title but it encapsulates one of the themes of the novel. The genre is one I particularly enjoy – a fictional account of real events, in this case the voyage of The Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard. It is a satisfyingly long book, about 750 pages and I am only at page 500. So far The Beagle has been twice to South American waters and now after a five year voyage is returning home via Tahiti and New Zealand. The impact of Christianity and British values on the places visited seldom shows either in a good light. The title makes sense in this context.

Harry Thompson is an unlikely author of such a book. The only other thing he published is a biography of the satirist Peter Cook and he mainly wrote scripts for comedy programmes like Have I Got News for You. But he read History at Oxford and I have no doubt would have written more in the historical fiction genre had he not died in 2005, three months after Darkness was published, aged forty-five.

After such a Top Tip I will be asking Sophie for more advice on what to read.