Boneland must be one of the strangest sequels ever written. It is not Alan Garner’s best book, but for the questions it poses, it is of great interest to all of us who write for children. It purports to complete the trilogy begun fifty years ago with his earliest books, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and … Continue reading Why Colin can’t remember – reflections on Alan Garner’s ‘Boneland’
Tag: The weirdstone of Brisingamen
The Cartography of Childhood 2: a recanting
'Blog in haste, repent at leisure.' (old proverb, probably attributed to Albert Einstein/Dr Seuss/Abraham Lincoln) When I said ‘the fantasy element in fantasy literature is the embodiment of the child’s expectations of the grown-up world’ I felt I had pinned down an idea that I have been moving towards for some time - years, in … Continue reading The Cartography of Childhood 2: a recanting
The Cartography of Childhood
The first house I remember clearly is the second I lived in, from when I was not yet three till shortly before my seventh birthday. It occupied the upper right-hand quarter of a council house that stood at one end of a pair of keyhole-shaped cul-de-sacs that faced one another across a main street. To … Continue reading The Cartography of Childhood
COMPLEAT TROWZER 