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Publication date: May If the rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs and dens of the land of Britain had a voice, it would sound like Alan Garner telling a story. The purpose of the storyteller is to relate the truth in a manner that is simple: to integrate without reduction; for it is rarely possible to declare the truth as it is, because the Universe presents itself as a Mystery. We have to find parables; we have to tell stories to unriddle the world. This extraordinary body of work has fascinated and inspired readers and writers alike for more than fifty years. Alan Garner turned 80 last year, and in celebration, many of the writers, artists, archaeologists and historians he has inspired are contributing pieces to this volume. Edited by the acclaimed novelist and journalist, Erica Wagner, it will make a beautiful and important book for anyone who cares about the power of story to enrich First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner transform. What am I pledging for? As well as the receiving the book and enjoying the rewards listed opposite, a portion of the proceeds from the sale First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner First Light will be donated to the Blackden Trusta charitable trust that works to preserve and share the ten thousand years of history, two ancient houses and countless stories that have emerged from the acre of Cheshire land which has sustained Alan Garner for almost sixty years and where all his work has originated. Her first job was helping First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner mother open the fan mail for The Muppetsbut she came to England in the s, and was educated at Cambridge and the University of East Anglia, where she was taught by Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She went on to become the Literary Editor of The Times between and The stone is a mile from Thursbitch. A carved stone on the verge of a Cheshire lane, now perpendicular to the road but when Alan Garner first came across it -- bounding over the moor one Saturday in July, a little over 50 years ago -- it was flat against the bank, its back hidden. Garner saw:. Poor John Turner, but not much more to it. Yet in clearing the grit to read the inscription, Garner realised that the back had been carved as well. As darkness began to fall, his arm hooked behind the stone, his fingers found another inscription:. The "h" of "where", having been mistakenly left out by the carver, is neatly added below, as the mason would have been paid by the letter. John Turner was a local man, a "jagger" or packman, his business in his time to transport goods out of Cheshire and back again. He would have known the road and the weather: why would he have died so close to home? On a grey September morning, as I stood by the stone with Garner's wife, Griselda, this mystery that half a century ago sparked his new novel had lost none of its power. Why this death? Why so memorialised and yet the date uncertain? Only the single print of a woman's shoe? Stone and fiction rang against each other in the air. Read more Updates Erica Wagner has written 1 private update. You can pledge to get access to them all. Greetings, friends! I thought you might like a little update on the continuing journey of First Light. First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner this past weekend I was at the wondrous Beyond the Border International Storytelling festival in Wales, one of my very favourite places to be in all the wide world. If you've never been, you should go -- inwhen the next festival will run. In the meantime, of course, you can follow BTBStorytelling…. What an exciting time we're having! I'm so thrilled by the reception of First Light -- here's a wonderful blog by Benjamin First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garnerand another by Kate Macdonald. Sometimes puffery and publicity…. As the storytellers say, I wish you all had been there: and yet, of course, you werebecause without your support this extraordinary book would never have come into being. And it is an extraordinary book: yes, I'm the editor, but looking down the list of contributors, and seeing so many of them in the Weston…. Team First Light! First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner Light is First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner funded and ready to go -- we've known that for a while. Now we have an official publication date -- May -- and I've seen what the beautiful! Nope, I'm not going to spoil the surprise -- but I will say I am delighted, as I've been delighted with putting this book together every step of the way. It's remarkable to have been in close touch not only with my…. And so to see the Garners on a frosty weekend. Greetings, fellow Unbounders! Sorry for the long silence, but I have been so preoccupied with reading all the marvelous, marvelous pieces which have been pouring in from our contributors that I have been stunned into radio silence. But here I am with a bit of an update. So -- as I say, nearly all the pieces are in, but I am going to be mean and not tell you anything about them because I don…. Well -- I just wanted to send an enormous thank you to everyone for supporting First Light so generously. You know the deal with Unbound already: there's a big U at the beginning of their name for a reason! And it's wonderful for me to know that even before the book is finished and the brilliant contributions are now coming in First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner and fast there is a great gathering of eager readers out there…. The author of the Sandman comics and so much more and the author of Cloud Atlas and so much more had never met before; it was a privilege to watch them…. It's a rare thing to sit in a chimney, these days; but I'm lucky to have had many evenings in the chimney of the Medicine House. Dr Rowan Williams -- former Archbishop of Canterbury -- appeared in the piece, and what he said about Alan's work was wonderful. Thirty-six per cent! It's hard to get much work done when you're watching the Unbound wheel roll steadily forward. Of course working on this book has made me reflect upon all the years I've known Alan and Griselda, and some of the adventures I've been lucky enough to share with them…. It seems rather cosmic that I should be laid low by a ghastly flu just as First Light is launched -- I'll First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner of it as a great shifting of energies, rather than a nasty lurgy, and that will be better medicine than any Lemsip. And I'm energized enormously by the great support we've already got for this exciting project: a real sign of the passion people feel for Alan Garner's work. Dear Erica, I am not a published writer, though I try I have a day jobI have written about my experience of how Alan Garner changed my life by a talk he gave at Oxford in I spent a day with Alan at his home inand First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner was unforgettable. We covered so much ground. At the end, as I was leaving, he pointed out how clearly you could hear the M6 five miles away that evening, and explained in meteorological detail how it depended on the temperature, humidity, and density and height of the clouds. He had the equation somewhere And let us not forget that behind every great man there is a great woman. Griselda is an extraordinary person also, a former actress and published poet, born in Alexandria, her mother Russian. Am signing up for your book. Good luck. Andrew Dale ilo. Dear Andrew -- Thank you so much for this email; I'm so glad you are signing up and I'll read your blog. And absolutely -- here's to the great Griselda. All best! Is it possible to upgrade to a more expensive pledge if I get more money later? Hi Anne, Thanks for getting in touch. It is possible, but there isn't a simple upgrade button on the site we're working on this. When you want to upgrade please email support unbound. Best wishes, Caitlin - Unbound Community Coordinator. Didn't realise it was Alan Garner's 80th birthday this year. Nice project, he's one of our greatest writers of the last 50 years. So very First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner. Best of luck with the book. Thanks so much for writing, Adrian. I'm grateful for your support -- and hope you enjoy your walk! All very warmest regards -- Erica. Dear Erica, I was so excited to read about your book. I was born in Alderley Edge and was so excited as a child when Alan Garner wrote about our local Arthur legend in his first book, and I met him when the book was published. I've read all his books and think he's an extraordinary author. Thank you for producing this book, and I'm so glad I can support it. Best wishes, Ros. Dear Ros, Thanks so much for this; it's wonderful to have your support. Very best regards -- and I'm sure you'll enjoy the book when it appears! Best, Erica. Hello Erica, as a family we all want to individually support Alan. So far we have managed to join one member, when we tried to have the second family member name entered your site refused us admission saying "we have already have this e-mail address". As we only have this one e-mail could you please tell us how we can continue with our other pledges? One other question can we also pledge for a further family as a gift using our card, it would be the same surname and address. Thank you. Hi Margaret, Thanks for getting in touch. You can only have one Unbound account per email address. The Stone Book Quartet – The Museum of Thin Objects

Much of his work is rooted in the landscape, history and First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner of his native county of CheshireNorth West Englandbeing set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect. Born in CongletonGarner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edgeand spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as "The Edge", where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then briefly at Oxford Universityin he moved to the village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern Period circa building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamenwas published in A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore in its plot and characters. Garner completed a sequel, The Moon of Gomrathbut left the third book of the trilogy he had envisioned. First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner away from fantasy as a genre, Garner produced The Stone Book Quarteta series of four short novellas detailing a day in the life of four generations of his family. In his subsequent novels, Strandloper and Thursbitchhe continued writing tales revolving around Cheshire, although without the fantasy elements which had characterised his earlier work. Inhe finally published a third book in the Weirdstone trilogy, Boneland. Alan Garner, [1]. Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in CongletonCheshire, on 17 October Robert Garner and his other relatives had all been craftsmen, and, according to Garner, each successive generation had tried to "improve on, or do something different from, the previous generation". Instead he taught his grandson the folk tales he knew First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner The Edge. Garner faced several life-threatening childhood illnesses, which left him bed ridden for much of the time. At school, Garner had developed a keen interest in the work of Aeschylus and Homeras well as the Ancient Greek language. Although he personally could not afford it, he was lent the money by the local Oddfellow lodge, enabling him to purchase and move into the cottage in June Set in Alderley Edge, it revolved around two children, Susan and Colin, who are sent to live in the area with their mother's old nurse maid, Bess, and her husband, Gowther Mossock. Setting about to explore the Edge, they discover a race of malevolent creatures, the svart alfarwho dwell in the Edge's abandoned mines and who seem intent on capturing them, until they are rescued by the wizard Cadellin who reveals that the forces of darkness are massing at the Edge in search of the eponymous "weirdstone of Brisingamen". Garner sent his debut novel to the publishing company Collinswhere it was picked up by the company's head, Sir William Collins, who was on the look out for new fantasy novels First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner on from the recent commercial and critical success of J. Tolkien 's The Lord of the Rings — With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget. The Moon of Gomrath also revolves around the adventures of Colin and Susan, with the latter being possessed by a malevolent creature called the Brollachan who has recently entered the world. With the help of the wizard Cadellin, the Brollachan is exorcised, but Susan's soul also leaves her body, being sent to another dimension, leading Colin to find a way to bring it back. In Garner began work on a radio play named Elidorwhich would result in the completion of a novel of the same name. Here, they are entrusted by King Malebron to help rescue four treasures which have been stolen by the forces of evil who are attempting to take control of the kingdom. Successfully doing so, the children return to Manchester with the treasures, but are pursued by the malevolent forces who need them to seal their victory. Alan Garner, [3]. Before writing ElidorGarner had seen a dinner service set which could be arranged to make pictures of either flowers or owls. Inspired by this design, he produced his fourth novel, The Owl Service. It took Garner six years to write his next novel, Red Shift. 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. Inthe literary critic Neil Philip published an analysis of Garner's novels as A Fine Angerwhich was based on his doctoral thesis, produced for the University of London in InGarner's novel Strandloper was published. His collection of essays and public First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner, The Voice That Thunderscontains much autobiographical material including an account of First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner life with bipolar disorderas well as critical reflection upon folklore and language, literature and education, the nature of myth and time. In The Voice That Thunders he reveals the commercial pressure placed upon him during the decade-long drought which preceded Strandloper to 'forsake "literature", and become instead a "popular" writer, cashing in on my established name by producing sequels to, and making series of, the earlier books'. Garner's novel Thursbitch was published in Garner's novel, Bonelandwas published innominally completing a trilogy begun some 50 years earlier with The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. With his first wife Ann Cook he had three children. I avoid writers. I don't like them. Most of my close personal friends are professional archaeologists. Although Garner's early work is often labelled as "children's literature", Garner himself rejects such a description, informing one interviewer that "I certainly have never written for children" but that instead he has always written purely for himself. Philip offered the opinion First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner the "essence of his work" was "the struggle to render the complex in simple, bare terms; to couch the abstract in the concrete and communicate it directly to the reader". The English author and academic Charles Butler noted that Garner was attentive to the "geological, archaeological and cultural history of his settings, and careful to integrate his fiction with the physical reality beyond the page. In a paper published in the Children's Literature Association QuarterlyMaria First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner characterised Garner as "one of the most controversial" authors of modern children's literature. In the fiftieth anniversary First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner of The Weirdstone of Brisingamenpublished by HarperCollins inseveral notable British fantasy novelists praised Garner and his work. Susan Cooper related that "The power and range of Alan Garner's astounding talent has grown with every book he's written", whilst David Almond called him one of Britain's "greatest writers" whose works "really matter". Another British fantasy writer, Neil Gaimanclaimed that "Garner's fiction is something special" in that it was "smart and challenging, based in the here and the now, in which real English places emerged from the shadows of folklore, and in which people found themselves walking, living and battling their way through the dreams and patterns of myth. The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Garner was the sole runner-up for the writing award in From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other people with the First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner name, see Alan Garner disambiguation. My ability was in language and languages. I had to use that, somehow. And writing was a manual craft. But what did I know that I could write about? I knew the land. It stood for all that I'd had to give up in order to understand what I'd had to give up. And so my first two books, which are very poor on characterization because I was somehow numbed in that area, are very strong on imagery and landscape, because the landscape I had inherited along with the legend. Readers under the age of eighteen read what I write with more passion, understanding, and clarity of perception than do adults. Adults bog down, claim that I'm difficult, obscurantist, wilful, and sometimes simply trying to confuse. I'm not; I'm just trying to get the simple story simply told I didn't consciously set out to write for children, but somehow I connect with them. I think that's something to do with my psychopathology, and I'm not equipped to evaluate it. A Bag of Moonshine, Illustrated by P. Fantasy portal Wales portal. Children's literature portal Fantasy portal Mythology portal. The Guardian. Retrieved 18 August Alison Flood. The Guardian 15 March Retrieved 15 March Retrieved 29 July The Hans Christian Andersen Awards, — Pages — Hosted by Austrian Literature Online literature. Science Fiction Awards Database sfadb. Mark R. Kelly and the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. University of Warwick. Retrieved 25 January Writers at Warwick Archive. Retrieved 13 July Retrieved 11 July The Guardian 12 March Retrieved 2 August The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Children's Literature Association. Retrieved 12 December Classic Kids TV classickidstv. BBC Radio. Retrieved 22 August Blackden Trust Archived from the original on 8 November Retrieved 10 September Children's Literature Association Quarterly. Joanne Parker ed. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Times Literary Supplement. Pockets: A Story for Alan Garner | Dougald Hine

English novelist, editor, essayist, lecturer, and author of young adult novels, juvenile novels, picture books, fairy tales, and folklore. The following entry presents an overview of Garner's career through For further information on his life and career, see CLR, Volume Considered among the most important British children's authors of the late twentieth century, Garner has been noted for his skillful evocation of folk traditions and the multiple layers of meaning contained in his texts. Winner of both the prestigious Caldecott and Guardian Awards for The Owl Serviceseveral of Garner's novels are considered classics within the fantasy genre. With such later works as The Owl Service and his Stone Book Quartet series, however, Garner's interest in fantasy has become more closely enmeshed with the realistic English landscape of his childhood, and his efforts to preserve the folk tales and cultural heritage of his native England have been cited as exemplary by several reviewers. While Garner's more recent novels have been more oriented towards an adult audience, most of his children's books remain in print and a part of the landscape of English children's literature. Garner was born on October 17,in his grandmother's home in Congleton, Cheshire, England. He is the descendent of a long line of skilled craftsmen from Alderley Edge, where he spent most of his childhood and near where First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner resides today. Alderley Edge earned its name from the six-hundred-foot ragged cliff that his family and neighbors had mined for generations for its rich deposits of copper and stone. The son of Colin and Marjorie Garner, he spent much of his youth crippled by a series of severe illnesses—diphtheria, meningitis, and pneumonia—which kept him confined at home. Nonetheless, Garner not only survived these painful bouts, but also became an excellent student and the first member of his family to earn a place in higher education. Leaving Oxford before taking his degree, Garner returned to Cheshire, to a medieval timber-framed house situated about eight miles from Alderley. First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner a two year service in the First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner Artillery as a Second Lieutenant, Garner returned to the Alderley Edge area and began writing the first of many young adult novels that prominently featured Alderley Edge as their setting. Diagnosed with manic depression and bipolar disorderGarner has struggled with his emotional health, though, despite such hardships, he has become one of England's most honored writers. Among his more prestigious awards are his Guardian Award and Carnegie Medal for The Owl Service, making him the first author to win both awards for a single work. Garner's works for children have been variously described as dark, haunting, angry, and vivid. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is primarily about its setting, the countryside around Alderley Edge. The story is based on a local legend incorporating the sleeping king motif associated in England with King Arthur. The story describes the sale of a milk-white mare to a wizard who guards sleeping knights in a cavern under Alderley Edge. When farmer Gowther Mossock tells the tale to two visiting children named Colin and Susan, they set out to find the Iron Gates that lead to the wizard. The children's game leads First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner to an attack by a pack of grinning svarts and rescue by the wizard himself, who calls himself Cadellin. The novel's sequel, The Moon of Gomrath, involves Colin and Susan once again meeting Cadellin and setting forth to unlock ancient magic long ago bound by powerful wizards. In Elidor, four children, playing a game with a street map, wander into the slums, where a ragged fiddler unlocks a gateway into another world. In that world, Roland, the youngest child, finds himself alone in a forest as dead as the slum neighborhood; this new land, Elidor, is somehow analogous to our own. The fiddler reappears as a king named Malebron and sends Roland into a burial mound to rescue his siblings and to retrieve the lost treasures of Elidor. Those will help Malebron fight the blight on his land. Roland succeeds, and the children bring the treasures to Malebron, as foretold in an ancient Elidorian prophecy. In Garner's later novels, such as The Owl Service and Red Shiftthe author foregoes linear storytelling and expresses time as almost a cyclical entity. For instance, Red Shift contains three separate stories linked by the same Neolithic votive axe. In each, the axe serves as a totem, though to different effect. The history of the axe is violent; ancient soldier Macey wields it for violent means, until he is shown his abuse of power by a local tribal girl, and he buries it. Discovered by Thomas init is witness to the siege of Bartomley—the same village attacked by Macey—although Thomas is safely guided through the turmoil by Madge, who takes him to her cottage on Mow Cop where the axe is hung as a charm. Contemporary couple Tom and Jan finds the axe, and Jan venerates it as a symbol of their relationship. When Tom discovers evidence of an affair by Jan, he sells the axe in revenge and is abandoned by Jan. In a coded appendix, the reader is led to believe that Tom intends to kill himself as a result. The three stories are linked by more than just the axe: each couple interprets its import differently, offering wildly different results. Similarly, The Owl Service offers a recurring vision of events based upon the Welsh myth cycle of the Mabinogion. Borrowed from the fourth cycle of that legendary collection of stories, The Owl Service retells the story of Lleu llaw Gyffes, his wife, Blodeuwedd, and her lover Gronw. Their tragic tale, which ends in the transformation of Blodeuwedd into an owl as punishment for her infidelity and the death of Gronw at the hands of Lleu, has been altered by Garner into a repeating cycle of tragedy in the Welsh valley in which it has been set. The book relates the story of Alison and Roger—two English children from London—and Gwyn, the Welsh son of the caretaker for the home in which they are spending the summer. The children are forced to relive the doomed love triangle begun by Blodeuwedd through the magics of an enchanted setting of plates with images that can be seen either as First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner or flowers, much like Blodeuwedd, who had been created from flowers and forced into submission as an owl for her crimes. Granny Reardunthe second volume of the series, treats the theme of family and history through another angle, depicting a boy who decides to abandon his grandfather's stone masonry trade in favor of apprenticeship to a blacksmith. The saga continues with the final stories of the quartet, The Aimer Gatein which the destructive impact of World War I is addressed, and Tom Fobble's DayFirst Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner coming-of-age story in which a young boy acquires the courage and confidence to sled down one of the highest hills he can find. Despite Garner's highly favorable reputation with international critics, his canon of young adult novels has not achieved the same level of repute with juvenile audiences. And, as often happens in the world of children's books, while his books are marketed for children, they are mostly discussed by adults from adult perspectives. Donna R. Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tales ; published in the United States with illustrations by Julek Heller, It was published as one volume in the United States in I don't think it can be finished…. I think this valley really is a kind of reservoir. The house, look, smack in the middle, with the mountains all round, shutting it in, guarding the house. I think the power is always there and always will be. It builds up and builds up until it has to be let loose—like filling and emptying a dam. And it works through people. The Owl Service The notion that Gwyn articulates First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner a common one in the novels of Alan Garner: places that have been the sites of momentous events or objects that have been the catalysts for momentous events are imbued with power. Given the right conjunction of elements, the residual power, whether it is understood or not, is released into another time and, once released, will play out the pattern first imprinted on it. So in The Moon of Gomrath, when Susan unwittingly lights a fire of pinewood on the Beacon mound on the Eve of Gomrath, she unleashes the primitive magic of the Wild hunt on twentieth-century Alderley. In The Owl Service, Alison's paper reconstructions of owls from the flowers of the dinner plates she finds fixes herself, Gwyn, and Roger in the roles of the valley's star-crossed lovers. Birch wood, mountain, and sand quarry in Red Shift remain places of struggle, sanctuary, and sacrifice in times as distant from each other as the first, seventeenth, and twentieth centuries. The power in itself is neither benevolent nor malevolent. The manifestations of power in the early novels, however, are more often experienced as malevolence than grace because the characters are, for the most part, ineffective either in stopping or channelling the power. It would seem that a knowledge of the paradigmatic pattern should allow access at will to the power of the paradigm. But, in all of Garner's novels, it is only the wizards—Cadellin of the first two books and Malebron of Elidor —who know enough to control to some extent the vehemence of the forces resident in their worlds. Huw of The Owl Service and First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner, Thomas, and Macey of Red Shift know in part, but their knowledge seems only to make them unusually vulnerable to domination by the irrational and mysterious energies of the universe. They are negatives of the wizards. The central children of Garner's early novels are not among the empowered. First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner them, victory is surviving the danger and excitement of an adventure which they do not control, about which they have little understanding, and from which they apparently will gain nothing to bring back to their post-adventure lives. In fact, the action in both of these novels is fueled by the need of the mythic world to take back First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner that Susan has been given. In both novels, the talismans Susan owns suggest that she is someone other than herself. The bracelet she wears in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, for example, has been given her by her mother who has received it from the family servant, Bess. It is interesting to note that, in the radio play that was the basis for the novel, the children were allowed to keep the grail talismans Philip In revision, the climactic final scene has the children throwing spear, cauldron, sword, and stone back through the broken window that is the portal to Elidor. The items have always been inconveniences for the children in the Manchester working-class world they inhabit and, increasingly, dangerous as well. In the novels that follow Elidor, the mythic world is no longer one that the children characters go to at all. Garner's exploration of the interrelationship of mythic, historic, and domestic worlds First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner both The Owl Service and Red Shift is far more complex and subtle. These two novels usually have been seen as fascinating intellectual exercises by readers, but nevertheless are given ambivalent reviews. Among the common complaints are the lack of resolution of the final scenes and the inclusion of these books on children's lists. I suspect that both of these complaints are reactions to the terror that edges the stories. It is a sense that may be First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner in these two novels, but the terror has always been there. In all the early stories, the claim of the mythic world on the children figures is an intrusion and a demonstration that, in some significant sense, the world is not their home. In The Stone Book Quartet, however, Garner seems to have found a new way to think about his material. That Garner based his four short books published separately between and on the oral and written history of his own family is well-known. Philip's introduction is a fascinating look at how linguistic, geographic, and historic facts have shaped Garner's use of his family sources. I too focus on Garner's use of the family, but on an idea of family as the source of power that floats behind the detailed accounts and specific actions of each of the four children in the books. This idea of the family is never articulated by any of the characters. It is, in fact, the fifth story of this book. As in Garner's previous novels, the events of history and prehistory press on the lives of the central children. But Mary, Joseph, Robert, and William do not stumble upon other worlds as strangers, because of guilty possessions, unlucky accidents, or unpredictable conjunctions. These children are given heirlooms and taken places that potentially allow them access to all the meanings that have been found and made by family members over time. Significantly, the stories of the Quartet represent the first time in Garner's work that children are seen in the context of family life. In each of the other novels, family life has been disrupted before the adventure occurs. Colin and Susan of Weirdstone and The Moon of Gomrath have been sent away to the home of a former servant in the countryside First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner six months while their parents live abroad. Elidor opens with the four Watson children trying to fill an afternoon while their parents pack in First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner for a move to a new house. The Owl Service is set in a newly-blended family, Alison's mother having recently married Roger's father. In Red Shift, Jan communicates with First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner professional and upwardly mobile parents only by telephone or answering machine. Tom's parents, while not upwardly mobile, do live in a caravan and speak First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner cross-purposes, both to Tom and to First Light: A Celebration of Alan Garner other. In the Quartet, the context is explicitly the family.