First Light - A Celebration of Alan Garner

First Light - A Celebration of Alan Garner - Ed. Erica Wagner ***

I have been a fan of the British fantasy writer Alan Garner since meeting him, age 11. Garner attended the same school as me (significantly earlier), and came to give a talk, not to a huge auditorium but just a classroom of young readers.

For nearly a decade he brought out books that almost perfectly aged with me in their target audience, from The Weirdstone of Brisingamen to Red Shift (with the last we parted company as I found it too depressing). I was sufficiently fascinated by his books that I made a home movie in the late 70s visiting many of the locations used in them.

For those who remember the copper mine on Alderley Edge used evocatively in his writing as a dark underground location, a friend and I (probably illegally) explored a bit of it - which is where the photos below come from. In The Weirdstone there is a strange booming noise in the mine, coming from the goblin-like creatures, which meant we did eventually decide to leave in a hurry when we heard a similar sound.

This is all an extremely long lead up to why I couldn't resist buying a copy of First Light when I saw it advertised at a discounted price (it originally came out in 2016). I am probably glad I did, though it was a mixed experience. The book pulls together commentary on Garner's writing, many stories of people meeting up with the Garners, biographical material and even short fiction and poems inspired by Garner (one, oddly by a previous Archbishop of Canterbury).

There were some gems in here, particularly from writers inspired as I was by Garner's early books. I was also fascinated to read about Garner's short time as a running companion to Alan Turing. There is also a lot of repetition from people who admired his writing saying the same kind of thing... and a fair amount of pretentious commentary. Getting through this can make the reader feel something of a Treacle Wader (bad in-joke for Garner fans). All in all, I'm glad I bought it, but I can't imagine I'll ever read it again - though it has stimulated me to re-read those early novels.

Images by the author

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