There's an interview with Garner and a lecture at the Oxford literary festival in March, an exhibition of the author's works in Chester this autumn, and most joyfully, a weekend festival in October in Alderley Edge where, among guided walks and lectures and readings and commemorative badges, there will even be a medieval fair.Ĭount me in: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is a book that deserves to be celebrated, along with the rest of Garner's dark, unforgettable children's books: The Weirdstone's sequel The Moon of Gomrath, The Owl Service and Elidor. But I'm reminded of my childhood adoration of Garner by the startling news that it is 50 years – 50 years! – since he published The Weirdstone, his first novel, and the occasion is being marked with events throughout this year. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened, and we returned home. I wanted the svart-alfar to attack me, Cadellin to rescue me, and the still, anticipatory atmosphere of those dimly lit woods almost convinced me they might. We went to an autumnal wedding near Alderley Edge when I was 10, and I remember so clearly the walk we went on the next day: cold and gloomy and grey though it was, I scurried off by myself to lean against a rock and try, desperately to imagine myself into the world of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
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