First Light: A celebration of Alan Garner

by Erica Wagner (Editor)

For more than 50 years, Alan Garner has enraptured generations of readers with works like The Weirdstone of Brisingamen , The Owl Service , Red Shift , and The Stone Book Quartet . Described by Philip Pullman as 'the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien', Alan Garner has inspired readers and writers alike.

Now, in celebration of his 80th birthday, comes First Light . A collaboration by many of the acclaimed writers, artists, archaeologists and historians he has influenced over the years, this anthology includes original contributions from David Almond, Margaret Atwood, John Burnside, Susan Cooper, Helen Dunmore, Stephen Fry, Neil Gaiman, Elizabeth Garner, Paul Kingsnorth, Katherine Langrish, Helen Macdonald, Robert Macfarlane, Gregory Maguire, Neel Mukherjee, Philip Pullman, Ali Smith, Elizabeth Wein, Michael Wood, and many, many more.

Whether a literary essay, a personal response to Alan's work, a memory of the first time they read his work, or a story about the man himself, each piece is a tribute to his remarkable impact.

Edited by the acclaimed literary journalist and novelist, Erica Wagner, First Light is a striking collection that will touch the heart of anyone who grew up reading the works of Alan Garner.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Biography, Writing, Books About Books

Kindle Edition

First published May 5, 2016

About the author

Erica Wagner is an American author and critic living in London. She is former literary editor of The Times.

She is the author of several books, including a collection of short stories, Gravity, and Ariel’s Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and the Story of Birthday Letters, and the novel Seizure.

Her husband, Francis Gilbert, is author of I’m a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here!. She also reviews regularly for The New York Times. A judge for the Man Booker Prize in 2002 and 2014.

Reviews

[Peter Dunn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbound is a leap of faith as a publication model. You subscribe to help get a book into print as I did but you have no idea if it will be any good. Well actually that’s not quite true in the this case as it’s a collection of essays about the life and work of the well-loved author Alan Garner and it was put together by the talented former literary editor of The Times Erica Wagner so the omens were good, and Wagner does not let us down.

So while it is a blind leap of faith subscribing to such a book, one advantage is that you get a copy ahead of full publication hence this early review. So what joys are there in here for Garner fans?

It’s beautifully presented and printed, though at first sight the cover picture seems a little dull.

Secondly as Garner fans we find that we are in rather good company, with a former Archbishop, a TV archaeologist, astrophysicists, a famous comedian, and many more contributing essays.

Thirdly we find out new information (well new to me anyway) as to the particularly good company Alan Garner kept. In fact the book’s otherwise rather dull cover picture of Alan Garner running turns out to be a well-chosen window into an intriguing story of what happened when he met Alan Turing.

Finally (for this short review) many of these contributions contain a wealth of material that gives so many new insights into Garner’s writing (particularly the Stone Quartet) that I feel myself being dragged into doing something I have virtually never do, which is reread a work of fiction. Can there be a better accolade for a book on Alan Garner than being pulled back to reread works of his that we all thought we already knew well?

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had waited over a year for this book so to finally get it might have raised my review rating a little higher than it should possibly get: emphasis on 'little'. The first thing to note is that this is not a purchase for anyone who has yet to read much of Garner's work but it is a wonderful series of reflections on his life, stories and love of the land.

A series of chapters from various people, from writers, physicists, professors of literature, archaeology and poets to name but a few - this collection of memories from people who have been moved by Alan's work and understand the magic and music in which he sees the world both the darkness and the light was both captivating and highly entertaining.

There were some chapters in which I thought that the contributers did not really share their thoughts on Alan and his work but then, there were others which ran so close to my own discoveries when reading that I found myself reading them again. If anything, these chapters have made me go back to the landscape and renew the love, care and inquisitiveness I held so tightly too when I was younger.

[Alex Sarll]

A volume of tributes to Alan Garner, but where with many writers that could become a bit of a vapid love-in, this was never likely to be the case here. There's a recurring sense of Garner as, like his forebears, a craftsman, taking solid substance from the Cheshire landscape and working it into something people can use. If in his case it's words and myths rather than metal or stone, well, he's still very much a son of the soil rather than the ivory towers. Someone who quite naturally ends up finding pre-Roman artefacts discarded at school, or living just along the track from Gawain's Green Chapel, but then also someone who turns out to have been running buddies with Alan Turing - because the contributors here are not all writers. There are archaeologists and astronomers too (and an archbishop, for that matter). The writers do dominate, though. Part of the reason I was up for First Light as soon as I heard about it was that not only am I a fan of Garner, but also of many of the famous fans who took part in this. Some of them are perhaps usual suspects these days - Gaiman, Pullman, Fry - but there's also something from Susan Cooper, and bloody Hell, even the idea of Cooper and Garner in correspondence is like finding Merlin's letters to Odin or something. But there were also excellent pieces from writers I've never previously been tempted to investigate - I'd never given much thought to Wicked &c, say, but turns out Gregory Maguire can really write (even if he is a bit of a Luddite); I was dimly aware of Bel Mooney as a writer and agony aunt, but could never have expected the cry de profundis she offers. There are poems and artworks in response to Garner and his work, academic analyses and personal anecdotes, even a few contributors who efface themselves and instead disinter Garner marginalia from school magazines, abandoned projects and the like. Really, the only disappointment is a typically tiresome little fable from genre traitor Margaret Attwood, which bears no noticeable Garner connection and feels more like it should be in a sub-par tribute anthology to Gaiman or Angela Carter. Still, skip that and this is a treasure trove for any Garner fan. And though I'm far from having read all his works myself (yet), I'm suspicious of anyone who isn't at least a little bit of a Garner fan.

(This was finished, incidentally, while I was also starting Jerusalem, the product of another bright, mystical and fiercely working class Alan whose fiction is rooted in a close bond with a very specific tract of English earth. I knew I was never going to be able to read that one straight through, but maybe I could have mixed my reading a little more thoroughly there)

[Gordon MacLellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a slow read...not in any way a hard or reluctant read but one of those books you dip into and return to, savouring it in chapter length delights.
There are so many fascinating entries here, a reflection of Alan Garner's impact upon so many lives: both his writing and his personal generosity of spirit in meeting, talking to and inspiring others
Reading other people's accounts, for me, has me composing my own entry, "what would I say?"..."where would I start?". With a school project as we read Elidor in class, turning a whole wall into a magazine collage mural of the bombed streets of Manchester with a huge unicorn rearing in the middle, and a teacher who said "O, Gordon, Alan Garner has written other books you might like". I still have the 4-shilling paperback of Weirdstone of Brisingamen I bought in the local bookshop, the first full-length novel I sat down and read from cover to cover without a break.....

[Alec]

Quite a random, lengthy mix of contributions about Garner's influence on people working in a variety of different fields. I think that's one of the interesting about points about the book, astrophysicists, archaeologists and biologists appear to all looking for the same thing, speaking their own languages, with the common denominator being Garner's work. Margaret Atwood, as inspiration, writes a cool fable about a raccoon stripping a human of their skin and wearing it, Neil Gaiman and other authors explain the seismic effect that reading his work had on their own practice. Then we also get people on digs, people in charge of schools or professors of psychoanalysis.

Many passages mention Alan's collection of essays 'The voice that thunders' so I'll be checking that out too. I wouldn't approach this book without having read the majority of his work though, especially The Stone Book Quartet, The Owl Service, Weirdstone and possibly Strandloper.

[Emma Goldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection of essays on the work of Alan Garner, a major British author of both adult and children's books. Each contributor, notable in their own right, focuses on aspects of Garner's individual books, their development, his use of the folklore of Alderley Edge, and the importance of place and geography in his work. The various sources he draws on are covered, plus personal reminiscences by contributors who know him personally, and details of his historic home, Toad Hall. A genuine collection of respect and admiration, and a worthy tribute which avoids any trace of unwelcome adulation.

[Richard Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful series of essays, poems, shirt stories and mini-treatises all in honour of one of our finest writers. There is such a diversity of writers and scientists sharing only the inspiration Alan Garner's books have provided. If you've read his works, then you'll get a lot from these essays both as regards the works themselves and the author. If you haven't... What are you waiting for?

[Martin Crookall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting range of plaudits and opinions from sources expected and unexpected

[Nick Swarbrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very torn by this overall thoughtful collection of essays, lectures and poems. Where it works for me, it is fascinating, challenging, genuinely enlightening; where it doesn't, I hope it works for others.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning book. So interesting and eloquent. A must read if you like Alan Garner’s books. A series of short essays about Garner, his life, background, books and interest in legends, myths, folk tales, archeology and the cosmos. Utterly brilliant.

[Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part an illuminating collection of essays, poems and other miscellania inspired by Alan Garner. Gregory Maguire's contribution was dreadful, but that was the only low point.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

"the landscape is not a book, with chapters layered neatly one upon the other"

A fascinating collection of essay's on Garner's work and life. Highly recommended.