Have you read ... Alan Garner?

       Funny how names - ones you know, ones long held in the memory - can suddenly come up and bring a writer or a book to the forefront of your attention. So it is with Alan Garner: first Geranium Cat's post on his novel Thursbitch, then DamsonLily saying that that book had completely obsessed her book group a while ago. I've never read Alan Garner, though The Owl Service has 'hovered' as a might-read, and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen has been in print for fifty years. All these books tempt me; have you read them?

Comments

[Susan Campbell]

Do read Alan Garner's book "Strandloper", it takes the imagination on a relentless circular tour, conveying scenes and characters with spare, efficient poetic prose.
I'm lost in admiration, and hope his writing style influences my own work-in-progress.

[BookRambler]

I loved the Owl Service when I first read it. Great characterisation and effective use of an ordinary setting to create uncertainty. Recommended read.

[m]

I loved him, he was the Philip Pullman of my generation! The Weirdstone of Brisingamen was definitely my favourite; I read it when I was about eight or nine and it was my first experience of being totally gripped by a page-turner, especially as the setting was Alderley Edge which was the Sunday-afternoon-out territory of my childhood.There's a sequel called The Moon of Gomrath.
I wasn't nearly so keen on the later teenage books; I found them a bit fey.

[Dark Puss]

I'm amazed you haven't read any of these! I very strongly recommend Alan Garner's books and he is a favourite at Dark Puss Mansion amongst all three of us. Can I also recommend Red Shift. If your read Weirdstone then you have to read Moon of Gomrath. Although both ostensibly children's books, and R loved being read them when he was nine, there are some quite well done "coming of age" aspects to them.

I think you would find a number of readers chez Cornflower who would like these novels.

[Lucy Coats]

Alan Garner is a must-read. The Owl Service is as scary as anything I've ever read--a reworking of the old Mabinogian myth of Blodeuwedd. But I think my favourite is The Stone Book Quartet. Just a magical use of language and atmosphere.

[LizF]

I haven't read The Owl Service but I adored The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath and Elidor and my copies of them are very battered indeed from very frequent re-readings.
They are all amazingly atmospheric and his use of language is, as a lot of people have said, magical.

[Juliet]

I loved Alan Garner's books as a child, and would really echo Lucy's recommendation to read The Owl Service.

[oxslip]

All of the childrens ones are fabulous - start with The Owl Service and Brisingamen, they will be quick but satisfying (I was sadly disappointed when by his venture into adult literature, but I may be out on a limb there)

[Georgina]

Wonderfully imaginative children's books. I read them as an adult but loved them. The combination of mystery, myth, magic and a great sense of place make a very satisfying read. Susan Cooper's books, if you or your children have read them, come to mind when I think of Alan Garner. Might try them again myself on a rainy day!

[Dark Puss]

J also recommends, as do other commentators, Elidor. I echo LizF's comments about the physical state of our copies!

P xx

[Barbara]

The first time I read The Owl Service I couldn't put it down.
I think Red Shift is utterly brilliant, though I do know people who find it so depressing they claim to hate it.

[Julie Fredericksen]

Never heard of him over here, but these books sound intriguing. I will have to search them out.

[Jackie]

I read The Owl Service when I was young, about 12 I think. There was also a television series on, the Sunday tea-time kind, which I remembered when I read the book. I seem to remember that as being quite good. I have not read any other Alan Garner books, though I am tempted to now!

[adele geras]

Do read the Owl Service at once, Cornflower...it's outstanding. I couldn't understand what was going on in Red Shift but must try again. But Owl Service is real must-read!