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Night Vision: In search of the true dark
'Elegant and deeply sensory' Katherine May, author of Wintering
An exhilarating leap into darkness in all its forms, enchantments and the new work of non-fiction from award-winning poet and writer Jean Sprackland
Darkness can make the most ordinary activity feel adventurous. Open a door and step through it. You can’t see a you could be anywhere. Step over the threshold, into the dark, and feel your way.
We humans have a complicated relationship with the dark. We fear it, and make great efforts to blot it out. But we also long for it, especially if we live in cities, or remember the starry skies of our childhoods. Darkness opens us up to risk, delight and transformation. Is it possible to prise it free of its negative associations, which are as old as human thought itself?
In her quest for a new, more intimate relationship with darkness, acclaimed poet and writer Jean Sprackland finds herself confronting some of the deepest – and darkest – questions about who we are and our place in the world. Drawing on memory and imagination, history and ecology, literature and myth, Night Vision is an expansive, thrilling journey into the true dark.
An exhilarating leap into darkness in all its forms, enchantments and the new work of non-fiction from award-winning poet and writer Jean Sprackland
Darkness can make the most ordinary activity feel adventurous. Open a door and step through it. You can’t see a you could be anywhere. Step over the threshold, into the dark, and feel your way.
We humans have a complicated relationship with the dark. We fear it, and make great efforts to blot it out. But we also long for it, especially if we live in cities, or remember the starry skies of our childhoods. Darkness opens us up to risk, delight and transformation. Is it possible to prise it free of its negative associations, which are as old as human thought itself?
In her quest for a new, more intimate relationship with darkness, acclaimed poet and writer Jean Sprackland finds herself confronting some of the deepest – and darkest – questions about who we are and our place in the world. Drawing on memory and imagination, history and ecology, literature and myth, Night Vision is an expansive, thrilling journey into the true dark.
263 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 6, 2025
2 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
About the author
Jean Sprackland
22 books22 followersJean Sprackland is a poet and writer. She is the winner of the Costa Poetry Award in 2008, and the Portico Prize for Non-Fiction in 2012. Her books have also been shortlisted for the Forward Prize, the TS Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Award.
Jean is Reader in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She is a trustee of the Poetry Archive, the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.
Jean has worked as a consultant and project manager for organisations involved with literature and education. She has held residencies in schools and universities, and is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation.
She lives in London.
Jean is Reader in Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.
She is a trustee of the Poetry Archive, the world’s premier online collection of recordings of poets reading their work.
Jean has worked as a consultant and project manager for organisations involved with literature and education. She has held residencies in schools and universities, and is a tutor for the Arvon Foundation.
She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 5, 2026
Well, me old mucca Jean never fails to delight me with her non-fiction writing. Both Strands: A Year of Discoveries on the Beach and These Silent Mansions: A Life in Graveyards are fantastic and this latest book is equally entertaining.
Jean takes the premise of the dark and runs with it, looking at everything from travelling to the true North (Northern Norway) to hospital side rooms of the dying to glow worms to street lighting to astronomy and everything in between. She intersperses her observations with snippets from her own life; losing her parents, being unwell with meningitis, bringing up her children, her own adolescence. Her style of writing makes for easy reading in that it feels like talking naturally with an old friend. The poet in her comes through strongly as well, with beautifully lyrical descriptions of the "nocturne".
I was thoroughly enchanted with this book and savoured every page. Definitely a keeper for me and one I will absolutely return to in the future. 5 star writing.
Jean takes the premise of the dark and runs with it, looking at everything from travelling to the true North (Northern Norway) to hospital side rooms of the dying to glow worms to street lighting to astronomy and everything in between. She intersperses her observations with snippets from her own life; losing her parents, being unwell with meningitis, bringing up her children, her own adolescence. Her style of writing makes for easy reading in that it feels like talking naturally with an old friend. The poet in her comes through strongly as well, with beautifully lyrical descriptions of the "nocturne".
I was thoroughly enchanted with this book and savoured every page. Definitely a keeper for me and one I will absolutely return to in the future. 5 star writing.
February 15, 2026
I love darkness even though I had to learn not to fear it when I briefly became a night dweller with a newborn baby many years ago. This book is an ode to darkness and I absolutely love it - the prose, the insights, the way it tickled my brain but also the sadness of darkness lost by our desire to master it.
“Without darkness, we are lost.”
Jean Sprackland’s imagery is beautiful and relatable as I too can see the Blackdown Hills from my window. I looked up the starkly stunning images of Thierry Cohen’s ‘Darkened Cities’ - imagined cities without light pollution and was in awe. The mention of Ritter’s ‘A woman in the polar night’ was uncanny as I also adore it.
This was everything I could have ever wanted from a book about darkness and a book I will re-read and treasure. Big thanks to my lovely daughter for the signed edition (looking after her during the night made me fall in love with what I used to be scared off all these years ago…).
“Without darkness, we are lost.”
Jean Sprackland’s imagery is beautiful and relatable as I too can see the Blackdown Hills from my window. I looked up the starkly stunning images of Thierry Cohen’s ‘Darkened Cities’ - imagined cities without light pollution and was in awe. The mention of Ritter’s ‘A woman in the polar night’ was uncanny as I also adore it.
This was everything I could have ever wanted from a book about darkness and a book I will re-read and treasure. Big thanks to my lovely daughter for the signed edition (looking after her during the night made me fall in love with what I used to be scared off all these years ago…).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews