The title of this beautifully written book is derived from the lines by William Blake that start: ""I give you the end of a golden string"". This is the life story of Don Bede Griffiths, now a Benedictine monk of Prinknash Abbey, in England. It opens with a mystical experience of school days which led Griffiths to becoming a sensitive nature worshiper—but with steadily diminishing religious faith. Then, under the influence of C.S. Lewis at Oxford, he launched into a wide program of reading philosophy and literature. Disillusioned by World War I, Griffiths and two friends cut themselves off from the world in a ""return to nature"", living in a remote cottage, entering gradually on a regime of fasting, then Bible reading and prayer. By degrees, Griffiths became intrigued by the Catholic Church and finally was baptised and soon thereafter entered monastic life.