Elidor by Alan Garner
Book of the Week: 15 March 2020
This week’s book is a classic from the 1960s. This is partly because I have been busily reading Hilary Mantel’s 883-page The Mirror and the Light and have not had time to read anything else, but also because everyone should sample one of the most lauded writers for young people.
Here is the plot description from publisher Harper Collins website, where you can read a sample of the book:
Roland, Helen, Nicholas and David, four Manchester children, are led into Elidor, a twilight world almost destroyed by fear and darkness.
On a gloomy day in Manchester, Roland, Helen, Nicholas and David are lured into a ruined church, where the fabric of time and place is weak enough to allow them into the twilight world of Elidor. It is a place almost destroyed by fear and darkness, and the children are charged with guarding its Treasures while a way is sought to save the dying land.
Then the evil forces find a path through to this world…
If you enjoy this, there is The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath to try, before moving on to the complex and difficult The Owl Service or Red Shift.
Alan Garner was poorly as a child and says that ‘for the first ten years of my life … I did very little but lie in bed’. He recovered and went on to be a renowned athlete at his grammar school in Manchester. After reading Lord of the Flies he decided to be a writer and left Oxford University to return home to Cheshire and write his first book. Over the years he has won many awards for his writing.