Alan Garner

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Alan Garner (born Congleton October 17, 1934) is an English writer whose work is firmly rooted in his local Cheshire. His very early writing was marketed mainly for children and could be described as fantasy, though he himself rejects the label of "children's writer":

I do not write for children, but for myself. Adolescents read my books. By adolescence, I mean an arbitrary age somewhere between 10 and 18. This group of people is the most important of all.

His more recent work (Strandloper, Thursbitch) is more specifically intended for adult readers, while the earlier The Stone Book Quartet (which received the Phoenix Award in 1996) is poetic in style and inspiration. Garner pays particular attention to language, and strives to render the cadence of the Cheshire tongue in modern English. This he explains by the sense of anger he felt on reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight": the footnotes would not have been needed by his father. This and other aspects of his writing are the subject of Neil Philip's A Fine Anger, (Collins, 1981), which offers a detailed analysis of his work.

His most recent novel is Thursbitch. Other works have won the Guardian Award, the Carnegie Medal,and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, as well as the Chicago International Film Festival 1st Prize for his educational film "Images."

His collection of essays and public talks, The Voice That Thunders, contains much autobiographical material, as well as critical reflection upon folklore and language, literature and education, the nature of myth and time. Garner is an accomplished public speaker.

The author Philip Pullman is a strong admirer, and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is an acknowledged classic of children's literature.

He was awarded the OBE for services to literature in the 2001 New Year's Honours list.

Works

His best known works are:

He has also edited a collection of stories about fools, The Guizer (1975).

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