The author’s revisions are of a substantial quantity and take place at various levels – though generally minor, evincing a subsequent distaste for the use of italics, improving word-use, he occasionally replaces whole sentences or paragraphs. The title-page lists Arkwright as the author of ‘Utinam’, a fantasy novel illustrated by Glyn Philpot, and ‘The Trend’ – to this can be added ‘Knowledge and Life’ and a book on Pointer dogs. The present work, his final publication, is a collection of scattered thoughts and aphorisms, occasionally expressed in verse, ranging from the mundane to the spiritual and structured – though the pertinence only occasionally intelligible – around the seasons of the year. There is something rather fin-de-siècle about its bearing - and if mention of the recent War is made at all, it is done so very obliquely.
The author (1857-1925) was a descendant of Richard Arkwright, the family’s wealth derived from their pioneering developments in cotton-manufacturing. The family’s Derbyshire mansion, Sutton Scarsdale Hall, was sold by William Arkwright in 1919 and he established Thorn House in Devon, where he developed the gardens in partial imitation of his former residence.