Alan Garner Books

This book was the first stepping point for me. I took a copy of this book to a circle of trees in Brockwell Park in London, near where I lived, and sat down on a stump and started reading. I was instantly transported to an imaginary world that I thought I had forgotten about – one filled with wizards and sleeping knights and unimaginable evil forces. Those first few mythical pages reminded me how much I loved folk tales – I loved how evil characters were invoked through nature and Grimnir smelling of “foul waters”. It reminded me of stories about creatures like Nuckelavee, Redcap, Black Annis and Jenny Greenteeth – all characters who I was desperate to in include in The Midnight Guardians, and some of which I did, but I had to be sparing!