A Dark Enchantment Roland Vernon

A Flavour of the Book: “There were two Godwin Tudors who now beheld the scene on the rock: one, a spectral personage, who, in the palm of his demon, forewarned, now nodded, almost smiling, who had known all along that no good would come of this business; and the other, the man of bone, sinew, learning and principle, who could barely hold himself upright at the sight of it, whose grasp of reality reeled for an instant as he tumbled forward into the tripod…”

The Authortrek View: A Dark Enchantment starts off quite slowly. However, after the first hundred pages, you find yourself, much like the hapless scholar Hermann, caught in a snare… And from that moment on, you will be swept away by Roland Vernon’s magnificent narrative. Godwin Tudor, an Englishman possibly related to the famous royal line, arrives in Athens in 1869 at a pivotal moment. The ruling government fears that its vociferous opposition will overcome it, and Russia is flirting with the country, trying to weaken its ties with Great Britain. At the centre of all this is the British landowner Edgar Brooke, whose estate on the isle of Pyroxenia is found to be rich in lignite. Godwin is invited to Pyroxenia (which appropriately enough seems to mean ‘fiery welcome’), but is perturbed to find that his host has disappeared for a few days. However, he is soon charmed by Brooke’s 16-year-old daughter, Lydia, with whom he embarks on making a series of photographs. When he does finally meet up with Brooke again, he finds his original conception of the man to have been quite wrong… Time and again, Godwin’s view of the world is challenged and ultimately shattered by the disastrous events in which he becomes embroiled.

A Dark Enchantment is very true to its title, for this masterful novel will entrance you - it is an exceptionally worthy winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Award. Roland Vernon very ably sweeps the reader into a Greek world that we have scarcely glimpsed before, a world on the edge of change, where murderous bandits still roam the hills… The plot is great, and the characterisation, especially that of the enigmatic Edgar Brooke, is skilled and complex. The many years that Roland Vernon spent in Greece shines through, as the country is portrayed with a great verisimilitude. Roland Vernon cut his teeth as an author by writing several biographical works on music, and his professionalism and skill shines throughout A Dark Enchantment, as this great novel is a wonderful and very stimulating read.

You can read a resume of the book on our Amazon store below. To find out more about the author, please visit our Roland Vernon page.

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