Nov 012013
I have, believe it or not, never read these books. My friend Tom will be sad to hear it, but happy that my situation has changed.
On the surface, this is stock stuff: Children are removed from their parents to go live in the country, where they discover that the world is more than it appears. Magic exists, based on local legends from where Garner was living, Cheshire. It’s good stuff, though it’s dated, and I wish I had read it thirty years ago – at eleven. For all that, though, notes of joy sing through its sometimes tired prose.