“I
love research so much that I do an enormous amount; it helps put off the moment
of starting to write the story.” –
Alan Garner
Born
in the front room of his grandmother’s house in Cheshire, England in October of
1934, Garner grew up near that northwestern English city, where he has chosen to
set most of his books. Best known for his children's fantasy novels and
his re-tellings of traditional British folk tales, his work is firmly rooted in
the landscape, history and folklore of his native county.
Noted
for his “slow, but steady” writing style, he takes his time but always produces
winners, earning him almost every major writing award for young people’s
literature in the process, including both the Carnegie Medal and The Guardian
Prize. He was runner-up for the Hans Christian
Andersen Award.
Garner has produced 18 books and 9 collections of short stories. His most well-known are The Owl Service,
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Stone Book, and Treacle Walker, a
finalist for the Booker Prize. In 2024, a
week before his 90th birthday, Garner published the memoir Powsels and
Thrums. Framed and inspired by his
grandfather, the book contains poems and short essays on the people and events
in Garner’s life starting at Manchester Grammar in 1946.
As
for being a procrastinator, Garner said, “Look, if you are going to
write, nothing will stop you. And if you
are not going to write, nothing will make you.”
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