Powsels and Thrums

Alan Garner

$39.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Fourth Estate
29 January 2025

Biography; Memoirs; Poetry; Folklore, myths & legends; Geography; Family history, tracing ancestors

‘I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration’ PHILIP PULLMAN

‘One of Britain’s greatest writers’ FINANCIAL TIMES

‘Alan Garner’s world is unbearably beautiful and dangerous’ GUARDIAN

In this lyrical and revelatory memoir, Alan Garner, Booker shortlisted author of Treacle Walker, traces the line of his life: from a working-class childhood in the landscape of Cheshire during World War II, through a grammar school education and on to the University of Oxford, and then home to see if he could become what he most desired: a writer.

We see the serendipitous moments that drove his course, from coming-of-age in a period of great cultural change, to crossing paths with a famous mathematician while out long-distance running, to the fateful day he chanced across Blackden, the medieval hall, miraculously located next to the giant telescope at Jodrell Bank, that was to become his lasting home and the setting for Treacle Walker.

As Garner tells us, a lifetime of working with a pen produces the powsels and thrums of research, imagination and story. These oddments can be shaped into something more than its parts: a vivid tapestry of a creative life that will inspire any reader, and what a celebration it is.

Alan Garner's book Treacle Walker was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022.

'Better than anyone else writing in English today' THE TIMES

‘A unique genius’ NEW STATESMAN

‘One of the most distinct and profound writers we have’ GUARDIAN

By: Alan Garner
Imprint: Fourth Estate
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 141mm, Spine: 27mm
Weight: 360g
ISBN: 9780008725211
ISBN 10: 0008725217
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 29 January 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Alan Garner was born and still lives in Cheshire, an area which has had a profound effect on his writing and provided the seed of many ideas worked out in his books. His fourth book, ‘The Owl Service' brought Alan Garner to everyone's attention. It won two important literary prizes – The Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal – and was made into a serial by Granada Television. It has established itself as a classic and Alan Garner as a writer of great distinction.

Reviews for Powsels and Thrums

Praise for Alan Garner: 'His work has a symphonic quality unique in fiction' The Times 'Garner is his own man … taut, powerful, credible' Penelope Lively, Independent