"He knew now that neither the wilderness nor the dark weather,
devils, nor the infinite void, mattered to him in the least. His
love for Deborah made him impregnable to terror, gave him a grasp
of truth deeper than reason. He had found the golden arrow, to his
own agony and ennobling." At the very beginning of the twentieth
century, Deborah Arden is living with her father John, mother Patty
and younger brother Joe in their cottage high up on the exposed
moorland hilltops of Shropshire. Their farm, High Leasowes, is
given over to the sheep her father cares for with great tenderness.
Their life is simple and elemental, and their concerns are those of
the people of the land. Nature rules their world, and they respond
by working alongside its almost unanswerable power, sometimes
willingly, sometimes not. John works with fate, gently
understanding all around him, be they supposedly bad or good, with
the utmost care. Patty's argumentative practicality rankles against
his easefulness, but she also works with nature, as busy midwife to
all the women around the district. Joe is a straightforward lad,
happy with a comfortable home, work in the fields that he knows,
and the gorgeous blonde, Lily Huntbatch, from the village of
Bitterley close by. Deborah is a lively intelligent young woman,
gossiping with her best friend Lily, lovingly tending the animals
with her father, helping her mother at home, and wondering about
love. Then the family hears news that one of the young miners from
the works up near the peaks has taken on the job of preacher at
their local church. They all go to hear Stephen Southernwood the
following Sunday, and most of the family and the local villagers
are quietly inspired. For Deborah though, it is as if a bomb has
dropped. Her naive questions about love have been resoundingly
answered. Now begins a journey of ecstasy, discovery and pain which
will affect the whole Arden family and all around it, a wild
journey where not only love is at stake, but life itself. Mary Webb
is one of the most misunderstood of twentieth century writers.
Dismissed as a rustic, pilloried as a romantic, she has been
consistently undervalued. In fact, she writes mostly of the soul,
expressing inherent truths in original and tender ways. Having an
almost uncanny internal compass for the workings of the human mind,
Webb presents people in all their contrariness and metaphysical
wonder with strange and bewitching honesty. This honest tendency
includes pioneering writing of physical desire and the erotic; on
original publication in 1916, The Golden Arrow was regarded as very
close to the bone. Mary Webb was born Mary Gladys Meredith in the
village of Leighton in Shropshire in 1881. At the age of 20 she
developed symptoms of Graves' disease, keeping her in somewhat
ill-health for the rest of her life. She married Henry Bertram Law
Webb, a teacher, in 1912. Her first novel The Golden Arrow,
published in 1916, was followed by five others, as well as essays,
poems and stories. Her fifth and most famous novel Precious Bane
was awarded the Prix Femina. Mary Webb died still relatively
uncelebrated in 1927 at the age of 46. Soon after her death the
Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, spearheaded a campaign of
recognition of her talent, gaining her posthumous bestseller status
and cementing her reputation as writer giving a twist of modern
genius to the classic tradition of Thomas Hardy and Emily Bronte.
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