Alan Garner

Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist best known for his children's fantasy novels and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.

Born in Congleton, Garner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edge, and spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as 'The Edge', where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then briefly at Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the nearby village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, was published in 1960. A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore in its plot and characters. Garner completed a sequel, The Moon of Gomrath (1963), but left the third book of the trilogy he had envisioned. Instead he produced a string of further fantasy novels, Elidor (1965), The Owl Service (1967) and Red Shift (1973).

Alan Garner (politician)

Alan Garner (5 June 1929 -1996) was born and grew up in Wolverhampton; he was a British Labour party activist and trade unionist. He was a member of Wolverhampton Council, for the Spring Vale and Heath Town wards, from 1973 until his death, and vice-chair of the West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority between 1992 and 1996, during which time he was a strong advocate of the Midland Metro.

Midland Metro tram number 06 was named after him at a ceremony at Wolverhampton St George's tram stop, on 13 August 2003.

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Alan Garner (footballer)

Alan Henry Garner (born 2 February 1951) is an English former professional footballer best known as a player for Watford.

Career

Starting out with his local team Millwall, Garner only made two league appearances before moving on to Luton Town in 1971. His time at Luton proved to be more productive, as Garner played 88 times in the league and helped Luton to promotion in 1973–74. After relegation in 1975, he was controversially sold to rivals Watford.

At Watford, Garner became a key player, appearing 200 times in the league during his five years at Vicarage Road, as well as being voted player of the season in 1977–78. Sold in 1980 to Portsmouth, he spent two years on the south coast before moving into non-League football with Barnet.

References

The Owl Service

The Owl Service is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1967. Set in modern Wales, it is an adaptation of the story of the mythical Welsh woman Blodeuwedd, an "expression of the myth" in the author's words.

Garner won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British author. It was named one of the top ten Medal-winning works for the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007, selected by a panel to compose the ballot for a public election of the all-time favourite. Garner also won the second annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a similar award that authors may not win twice. Only six books have won both awards in the 45 years from 1966 to 2011.

The mythical Blodeuwedd is featured in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi. She is a woman created from flowers by Math and Gwydion, for a man cursed to take no human wife. She betrays that husband Lleu in favour of another man, Gronw, and is turned into an owl as punishment for inducing Gronw to kill Lleu. In Garner's tale three teenagers find themselves re-enacting the story. They awaken the legend by finding a set of dinner plates (a "dinner service") with an owl pattern, which gives the novel its title.

The Owl Service (band)

The Owl Service is an English alternative folk band formed in 2006 by multi-instrumentalist Steven Collins, named after the 1967 novel by Alan Garner.

History

The Owl Service was originally intended to be a studio-based solo vehicle for Steven Collins, but while working on the first Owl Service release (the Wake the Vaulted Echo EP from 2006) he felt the need to enlist some help with vocal duties and this resulted in collaborations with Rebsie Fairholm (who sang on the debut EP, but then made only one more fleeting appearance with the band on the Bitter Night EP in 2008) and Dom Cooper of The Straw Bear Band, who remained involved with The Owl Service until March 2012; singing, writing songs and co-ordinating the band's graphic design. The Wake EP was warmly received in psych-folk circles and this lead to Collins being asked to contribute a track to the 2007 compilation album John Barleycorn Reborn on the Cold Spring label (for which he also wrote sleeve notes). For the JBR album, Steven recorded the traditional song The North Country Maid with session singer Rachel Davies, a song the band would revisit on the debut album in an alternative version. While recording the debut Owl Service album later that year, two permanent female singers joined the band; Jo Lepine and Diana Collier.

The Owl Service (TV series)

The Owl Service was an eight-part television series based on the fantasy novel of the same name by Alan Garner. Produced in 1969 and televised over the winter of 1969-1970, the series was remarkably bold in terms of production. It was the first fully scripted colour production by Granada Television and was filmed almost entirely on location at a time when almost all TV drama was studio-bound. It used editing techniques such as jump cuts to create a sense of disorientation and also to suggest that two time periods overlapped. For the series, the book was adapted in seven scripts (later stretched to eight) by Garner and was produced and directed by Peter Plummer. The direction was quite radical and seemed to be influenced by the avant-garde, a noted contrast to what might be expected of a children's serial.

Background

Following the success of the novel, which had won the Carnegie Medal and Guardian Award for children's literature, there was much interest in turning the story into a TV series with three companies vying for the rights. In the end, during the summer of 1968, Granada won out, approaching Alan Garner to script the series himself. The director chosen was Peter Plummer, who also acted as Producer. Since the novel was based on real locations, Plummer opted to use the same places where possible and although the scenes in the house were filmed in a manor near Liverpool, the rest of the filming took place in Wales (where the story was set). Filming began on location on 11 April and was completed 20 June, a few studio scenes were shot for the production, with these wrapping up on 3 July 1969. Trailers for the series were also shot, featuring material not used in the finished show.