Product Description

In this collection of lectures and essays, Allan Garner shows how, over the years, his thinking and writing have developed. They also demonstrate the wide range of his concerns and his scholarship: language, literature, education, mental health, anthropology, archaeology, myth, the spiritual quest, philosophy, music and film. Running through it all is his concern for excellence, innovation and humour, based on the effect of his childhood in a rural working-class family of craftsmen, and the combining of their standards with the academic world and his education as a classicist. The book is a poetic autobiography, starting with the description of his hearing himself declared dead at the age of six, and leading to the inevitability of his novel, "Strandloper". In the final essay, from which the book takes its title, he describes how "Strandloper" came to be written, and shows how all his skills were demanded to bring this work about, and how they transcended his previous expreience to prepare him for the work that lies ahead. Alan Garner is the author of "The Owl Service", "The Stone Book Quartet", "Elidor" and "Red Shift".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202300 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

A must read for any fan of Alan Garner's work...
As near to an autobiography as you can get.
A roughly chronological detail of the various things that have shaped Alan Garner's outlook and writing.
A pleasure to read in itself and also quite open and frank for an otherwise elusive writer.
A review can't really do it justice - if you like his work, then it should be on your bookshelf.

Will probably be of interest to folk who have a professional interest in books, publishing and literature, together with people with anthropology interests that overlap folklore, mythology and man's place in the landscape...

The Voice That Thunders
A rare and fascinating look into the mind of surely, one of the greatest writers of all time. A journey of self, and of personal life-experiences. A must for any collector of Garners' work!
From his early life on the 'Hough', at Alderley Edge - Alan's relationship with the 'Edge is sure to strike a chord with a great many people....it did for me! Fascinating.