Undergrowth

Francis Brett Young's first novel (1913) was written in collaboration with his brother Eric and inspired by the building of the Grywne Fawr dam in Wales. It anticipates his massive best seller House Under the Water written some 20 years later. Forsyth, a young civil engineer, travels to Wales to take command of the building of a dam. But what happened to the previous engineer? His disappearance is shrouded in mystery. Amid the gloomy atmosphere of the Welsh landscape and against the background of the deaths which are an inescapable part of the work, the mystery unfolds. Forsyth discovers the diaries left by his predecessor and, as he reads them, realises he is going the same way. The conclusion is dramatic and unexpected. A remarkable first novel by a newcomer was how Undergrowth was described at the time.