Of Weirdstones and Woodland

I think that I last read 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' by Alan Garner some thirty years or so ago. If you don't know the story it concerns two children - Colin and Susan - who go to stay with relatives in a Cheshire farmhouse. They become involved with an epic clash between the forces of darkness and those who oppose them, which draws much of its inspiration from Norse and Celtic mythology.

Certain scenes have remained with me - notably the crossing of Plankshaft - but more cogently it is the atmosphere that has haunted me for all that time. The claustrophobia of the underground tunnels, the strangeness of the creatures hunting the two children and most of all the descriptions of the Cheshire country side with its leafy lanes, shallow streams, tracts of ancient woodland and the incongruity of Alderley Edge itself rising from the plain.

I've been listening to the story again recently and it has certainly lived up to my childhood memories. It was made all the more magical by being part of my morning and evening walks through Foxfield Spring woods which seemed to match perfectly the woodlands of the book and the desperate chase through them that ensues. I'd forgotten some of the details of the plot and in particular the end of the story, but that just made it all the more pleasurable to revisit now.