Alan Garner

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Cheshire-born and bred, Garner has set his gripping sagas in and around his home area. This is great news as it means that virtually all the places mentioned on Alderley Edge are visitable. Both The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath are inspired by the Arthurian-like Legend of Alderley. Enter this world of wild magic and discover the Wizard’s Well, watched over by a bearded face; Saddlebole and the Iron Gates; Stormy Point, under which the enchanted knights sleep; Castle Rock, where Colin and Susan meet Cadellin after the stone is stolen; and The Beacon where the children light the fire that summons the Einheriar. Ignore the old copper mines and follow their footsteps above ground (or bike it – a national cycleway goes past The Wizard of Edge inn) as far as brooding Clulow Cross, scene of the final battle against the wrath of Nastrond. Errwood Hall (Gomrath) is real too: stand amid the ruins in Derbyshire’s Goyt Valley and quake at the thought of the Morrigan.

Red Shift takes in the landscape and settlements of Barthomley and Mow Cop, near Crewe. Step into St Bertoline’s Church, Barthomley, where the real-life John Fowler was killed in one of the Civil War’s most notorious massacres. Follow the Romans to Mow Cop (there’s a Roman road nearby) and take the waymarked walk around the mock-Gothic folly castle and the strange pinnacle of The Old Man of Mow (itself the focus of another Garner novel).