The Black Diamond

This successful and captivating plot revolves around the strong and charismatic protagonist Abner, who is constantly indigent and does various manual jobs to keep himself and whatever family he happens to be with alive. The story comprises many «classic» characters, from a drunk Irishman to an irritable gamekeeper, providing endless entertainment. The Black Diamond tells the story of a laborer working on the aqueduct in the region around Knighton. The novel was originally inspired by the construction of Birmingham Corporation's Elan Valley Reservoirs from 1893–1904.

Young was an incredibly famous writer of his day. «The Black Diamond» was one of his biggest successes. It is an exciting tale with all the elements of a 21st-century bestseller like infidelity, drunkenness, death, poverty, explicit coverage of human flaws and longings. This plot-driven novel is filled with numerous intriguing descriptions of English football, fairs, mining, eating, drinking, and culturally impressive accounts of farming, poaching, laying pipes.