I think I read almost all of Alan Garner's works as a teenager, but gave up on this one part way in because it didn't grab me at the time. Well, age brings increased ability to appreciate. It's an incredible book, a masterpiece of showing rather than telling, about patterns from the past (of story, of earthenware, of painting) coming to haunt the present day. There is a lot left beneath the surface - we never find out exactly how old Alison, Roger and Gwyn are, though the implication is that they are all three in their mid-teens, Alison perhaps younger than the other two; we never even see Alison's mother Margaret, though she remains a presence in the background; the mystery behind the owls and flowers and the pierced stone is never completely explained, which normally would annoy me, but just seems to work really well here. A really good book.
March Books 16) The Owl Service
I think I read almost all of Alan Garner's works as a teenager, but gave up on this one part way in because it didn't grab me at the time. Well, age brings increased ability to appreciate. It's an incredible book, a masterpiece of showing rather than telling, about patterns from the past (of story, of earthenware, of painting) coming to haunt the present day. There is a lot left beneath the surface - we never find out exactly how old Alison, Roger and Gwyn are, though the implication is that they are all three in their mid-teens, Alison perhaps younger than the other two; we never even see Alison's mother Margaret, though she remains a presence in the background; the mystery behind the owls and flowers and the pierced stone is never completely explained, which normally would annoy me, but just seems to work really well here. A really good book.
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Whoniversaries 1 March
i) births and deaths 1 March 1918: birth of Roger Delgado, the first Master (1971-73). 1 March 1926: birth of Barbara Clegg, author of…
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Whoniversaries 28, 29 and 30 February
i) births and deaths 28 February 1912: birth of Mervyn Pinfield, who was Associate Producer for Doctor Who from An Unearthly Child (1963) to The…
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Whoniversaries 27 February
i) births and deaths 27 February 1946: birth of Tom Chadbon, who played Duggan in City of Death (1979) and Merdeen in The Mysterious Planet…
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