Conrad’s superlative framed narrative is surely one of the most significant works of 20th century literature.

His famed account by the seaman Marlow of his search for the elusive Kurtz, into the heart of the African continent, raises questions about the nature of civilisation and the very soul of humanity. The book's influence has stretched beyond the realm of literature so that its most famous phrase - Kurtz's dying "The horror, the horror" has entered the language and Francis Ford Coppola re-interpreted and reset the novel in his hugely successful 1979 film, Apocalypse Now.

Heart of Darkness is truly a modern classic.

Joseph Conrad - Joseph Conrad was born in the Ukraine in 1857 and travelled to Marseilles, where he served in French merchant vessels before joining a British ship in 1878 as an apprentice. In 1886 he obtained British nationality. Eight years later he left the sea to devote himself to writing, publishing his first novel, Almayer's Folly, in 1895. Within fifteen years he produced such modern classics as >i>Youth, Lord Jim, Typhoon, Nostromo, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. He continued to write until his death in 1924.

Tom Stacey -

Author of Tribe, The Pandemonium, Bodies and Souls, Deadline(filmed for television with John HUrt), and The Worm in the Rose. He is the author of seven novels, including the seminal work The Brothers M, partly set in Ruwenzori. Other works include collections of short stories and two books of remote travel. He is the winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and of the Granada Award as Foreign Correspondent of the Year, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married, has five children and many grandchildren, and lives in Kensington and North Wales.

For more information on Tom Stacey please visit his website at http://www.tomstacey.com.

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By the same author or foreword writer:
The Man Who Knew Everything By Tom Stacey;  Sir Peregrine Worsthorne (Foreword)
The Gift of the Magi By O Henry;  Tom Stacey (Foreword)