author
Sydney Sandys
A little-known early 20th-century novelist, this writer is remembered for an energetic story set in the new world of electrical power. The work captures the excitement of young engineers stepping into a fast-changing modern age.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Very little biographical information about Sydney Sandys appears to be readily confirmed in reliable online sources. What can be confirmed is that Sandys wrote Jack Carstairs of the Power House: A Tale of Some Very Young Men and a Very Young Industry, a novel first published in 1909.
The book was issued by Methuen & Co. and later preserved by Project Gutenberg, where it is listed as Sandys's available work. Set around a power station and a young engineer, the novel stands out for its interest in industry, technology, and ambition at a time when electric power still felt new and full of promise.
Because so little verifiable personal detail is easy to recover, Sandys remains a somewhat shadowy figure today. Even so, the surviving novel offers a vivid glimpse of Edwardian popular fiction and of the fascination that early electrical engineering held for readers of the period.