Clarke, Lindsay

(British, 1939– )

Lindsay Clarke was born in Halifax and educated at King's College, Cambridge. His best-known novel is The Chymical Wedding (1989), the winner of that year's Whitbread Fiction award. Its subject matter is alchemy, and the narrative weaves between the present difficulties of the poet Alex Darken, who has retreated to East Anglia as his marriage is in ruins, and the attempts of the Victorian Sir Henry Agnew to penetrate the ultimate secrets of the alchemical art. The two stories are brought ever more closely together as the novel reaches its climax. The novel is rich in psychological insight, but is also particularly interesting for its treatment of alchemy.

Peter Ackroyd, Umberto Eco  SA