Publisher's Synopsis
Written in 1987 and recently discovered by his widow, H.R.F. Keating's 'A Kind of Light' is an homage to Joseph Conrad, a writer he greatly admired. It is from that author's 'Heart of Darkness' that the title is taken. Conrad's African jungle is the setting, and it has two interwoven stories. The first concerns a young Victorian gentlewoman who sets out into the heart of the Dark Continent, accompanied only by native bearers, in search of a plant which she has been told is the cure for the ravaging disease typhoid. She keeps diaries, six of which resurface a century later. Excerpts of these, together with a firsthand narration of her physically hazardous and mentally disturbing journey, give us a glimpse of Africa 100 years ago.
