Author Birthday – 17 October – Alan Garner

Happy Birthday, Alan Garner, born on 17 October 1934.

Alan Garner Quotes

1. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen has the strengths and weaknesses of all first books; but it was as good as I could make it at the time, which is as much as a writer can ever do… I have made it as good as I could and let it go. (atspace.org)
2. Whatever the work is, it comes through me, not from me, and brings with it a proper pride, a pride in craft, not the hubristic pride of creation. (atspace.org)
3. To say anything is ‘the best book’, to me, that’s intellectually impossible. All reading of fiction is subjective. It’s a false premise that art is competitive; it ain’t. (The Guardian)
4. All my novels are the result of academic method, that’s why they were so long in the writing. You’ve got to choose the right ingredients, put them into the still, and let them work. And then they deliver themselves. (The Guardian)
5. The thing that ties all creativity together is not something that universities should analyse, but people should just accept as wonder. (The Guardian)
6. Age, in itself, is irrelevant. However, as with all skills, an apprenticeship has to be served, through practice and experience. (The Booker Prizes)
7. I write and revise in longhand, then transfer to the computer for safety. Word-building is an organic process, and the elbow is a good editor; whereas, for me, the click of a keyboard has neither rhythm, direction, energy, nor life. (The Booker Prizes)
8. I write in what was the buttery of a medieval timber frame hall. The workspace is a slightly tidier version of Francis Bacon’s studio, with books, rather than paint, for decoration. (The Booker Prizes)
9. Research and gestation use up nearly all the time. The writing is fast and feels more like taking dictation. (The Booker Prizes)

Alan Garner is an English novelist best known for his children’s fantasy novels and retellings of traditional British folk tales. His distinctive writing draws on the landscape, history, and folklore of his native Cheshire in North West England, often using the local dialect. His first book, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, is a fantasy novel set in Cheshire in which twins face supernatural forces. He followed it with The Moon of Gomrath and Boneland . His novel The Owl Service won the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal and was adapted for television. His novel Treacle Walker was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Garner has also published collections of legends and folk tales, including Alan Garner’s Fairy Tales of Gold and A Bag of Moonshine, and written plays for radio, television, and the stage. In 2001, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to literature. His memoir, Where Shall We Run To?, recounts his childhood during the Second World War.

Source for photograph: Midnightblueowl, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson
Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: The Complete Author Birthday Calendar