Published posthumously, a few pages short of completion when Denton died, this was his most successful book in terms of critical notice. He progresses from Edith Sitwell’s oft-quoted description of Denton as a “born writer” to his writing being described as “genius“.
The book plunges straight into the action with a description of how Denton was knocked off his bicycle by a careless motorist. After a brief stop for coffee in a tea room, we find Denton flat on his back within a few pages, with an anxious police officer standing over him. The first half of the book recounts his experiences in hospital. The second half of the book describes Denton’s move to a nursing home in Broadstairs and his slow, painful progress back to something like normal life. The narrative is interspersed throughout with anecdotes from Denton’s pre-invalid life. And, as always, Denton’s experiences, observations and emotions are described in exquisite, vivid detail. Dealing with intense physical and emotional suffering as much as it does, the descriptions are often harrowing to read, evoking a physical response in the reader.
Although unfinished, the notes that Denton left in the manuscript suggest that this could have been the final line of his masterpiece:
I concentrated on the rhythm of my breathing. I felt glad that I should always have this with me till the day I died.
My copy of A Voice Though A Cloud was originally a gift from Eric Oliver to May Brooke. Either Eric or May taped a newspaper clipping of The Ship, one of Denton’s poems, to the title page.
Additional resources
As ever, Wikipedia is a great primary resource and jumping off point for further research about Denton, and the page dedicated to AVTAC is no exception.