In Darkest England and the Way Out

Booth wrote a tribute to Catherine in the book's preface, expressing his gratitude that "amid the ceaseless suffering of a dreadful malady, my dying wife found relief in considering and developing the suggestions which I have set forth".

In Darkest England, William Booth would use the figures published in Life and Labour of the People in London to extrapolate estimates which applied to the entire country.

[1]: 150  It was asserted in some circles that In Darkest England was actually written by the crusading journalist, W. T. Stead, who, in his own words, acted as a "literary hack" for the General when Mrs. Booth lay dying.

My only hope for the permanent deliverance of mankind from misery, either in this world or the next, is the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ.

But in providing for the relief of temporal misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is now difficult, and possible where it is now all but impossible, for men and women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.Within a month of publication, Darkest England had sold 115,000 copies.

An allegorical map included in In Darkest England , illustrating Booth's proposed scheme for salvation of the poor, including three forms of colony: city, farm, and across the sea.
Illustration from Stanley's In Darkest Africa . Booth drew an analogy between the lives of the poor in England with the apparent brutality of Central Africa, as described by Stanley.