Thursday, March 15, 2012

Alan Garner to complete his Alderley Edge trilogy

A report on the Guardian website carries the remarkable news that Alan Garner's next book, Boneland, will conclude the trilogy he began with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) and the Moon of Gomrath (1963):
Nicholas Lake, Garner's editor at HarperCollins, called the new book "a masterpiece. It's his crowning achievement, and in the manner of crowning achievements, it makes you reappraise is previous work. So there's a direct line to Weirdstone, but there's also a direct line to Thursbitch," Garner's 2003 novel for adults, "which means that it unites the strands of his writing in one brilliant capstone. I think people will be talking about it for years to come."
Garner was one of the most significant figures in what has been called the "second Golden Age" of children's literature in the 1960s. His later work became more adult and more demanding, but these early works developed a happy development of the children's holiday adventure into the supernatural.

Sometimes reading Garner can be a little like being hit over the head with a volume of British folklore, but it is hard not to feel a thrill of anticipation when you read:
In Boneland, Colin is a professor who spends his days at Jodrell Bank "using the radio telescope to look for his lost sister in the Pleiades. At night, he is on Alderley Edge, watching", said Garner's publisher. "At the same time, and in another time, the Watcher cuts the rock and blows bulls on the stone with his blood, and dances, to keep the sky above the earth and the stars flying."
According to the Fourth Estate website Boneland will be published on 30 August.

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