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Alan Garner


UK flag (b.1934)

Alan Garner was born in Congleton in Cheshire in October 1934. He was brought up on Alderley and now lives with his wife and family in a mediaeval timber-framed house near the Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope, between Congleton and Alderley. He says in his published biography that, while his ancestors on his father's side were skilled and steady people, his mother's side were 'gifted cranks'.

Alan Garner was educated at Alderley Edge Primary School, Manchester Grammar School, did two years National Service and then went to Magdalen College, Oxford. He left Oxford knowing that he had to be a writer and not a teacher as he had originally intended.

Cheshire and its mythology have had a profound effect on Garner's writing. His interest in history and archaeology, and his own local discoveries, have been the seed of many ideas he has worked out in his books.

His first three books, The Wierdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath and Elidor have become children's favourites. But it was his fourth book, 'The Owl Service' that undoubtedly brought Alan Garner to everyone's attention. It won two important literary prizes - The Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal - and was made into a serial by Granada Television. It has established itself as a classic and Alan Garner as a writer of great distinction.

In 1995 'The Stone Book' was awarded the Phoenix Award by the Children's Literature Association in the USA.
 

Genres: Children's Fiction, Young Adult Fantasy
 
Series
Alderley
   1. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960)
   2. The Moon of Gomrath (1963)
   3. Boneland (2012)
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Stone Book
   1. The Stone Book (1976)
   2. Granny Reardun (1977)
   3. Tom Fobble's Day (1977)
   4. The Aimer Gate (1978)
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Novels
   Elidor (1965)
   The Old Man of Mow (1966)
   The Owl Service (1967)
   Smith (1969)
   Red Shift (1973)
   The Golden Brothers (1976)
   The Girl of the Golden Gate (1979)
   Lad of the Gad (1980)
   Once Upon A Time (1993)
   Strandloper (1996)
   The Well of the Wind (1998)
   Thursbitch (2003)
   Treacle Walker (2021)
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Collections
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Novellas and Short Stories
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Anthologies edited
   A Book of Goblins (1969)
     aka A Cavalcade of Goblins
   Collected Folk Tales (2011)
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Anthologies containing stories by Alan Garner
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Arboreal (2016)
A Collection of Words from the Woods
edited by
Adrian Cooper
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Basilisk (1980)
edited by
Ellen Kushner

More anthologies 


Awards
Carnegie Medal Best Book winner (1968) : The Owl Service
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Best Book nominee (2013) : Boneland
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Best Book nominee (2013) : The Moon of Gomrath
Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Best Book nominee (2013) : The Weirdstone of Brisingamen


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