Interview With Alan Garner

[Katie-Ellen]

He was a great light in my formative reading, and is another example of someone who is sometimes classed as a children's writer, but is a writer for readers of any age. Not a sniff of dumbing down, he makes his readers work.

As an early teen, I felt nuances in 'The Owl Service' that I did not yet really understand, could only sense. It was the same with 'Red Shift'. I read it, partly understood it and partly didn't, quite, and years later, was still unpacking that first reading. Such is his stature. Mary Renault was another such.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b043x86j

 

[Marc Joan]

Wish I had the time to check this out - I've always liked Alan Garner, and like you I got a lot more out of The Owl Service when reading it for a second time, as an adult. I haven't read Red Shift - something to discover, good.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It's a radio documentary, partial interview. It can keep for a rainy day with pig all else to do...if there is such a thing. Jodrell Bank is on my wish list to visit. Alan Garner lives nearby, and the landscape there has, he says, coloured the Weirdstone of Brisingamen and much else of his writing. As one would expect.
I'm setting my new project in the Forest of Bowland; does anyone here know Lancashire? http://www.visitlancashire.com/explore/forest-of-bowland-aonb