Powsels and Thrums
‘I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration’ PHILIP PULLMAN
‘One of Britain’s greatest writers’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Alan Garner’s world is unbearably beautiful and dangerous’GUARDIAN
In this lyrical and revelatory memoir, Alan Garner, Booker shortlisted author of Treacle Walker, traces the line of his life: from a working-class childhood in the landscape of Cheshire during World War II, through a grammar school education and on to the University of Oxford, and then home to see if he could become what he most desired: a writer.
We see the serendipitous moments that drove his course, from coming-of-age in a period of great cultural change, to crossing paths with a famous mathematician while out long-distance running, to the fateful day he chanced across Blackden, the medieval hall, miraculously located next to the giant telescope at Jodrell Bank, that was to become his lasting home and the setting for Treacle Walker.
As Garner tells us, a lifetime of working with a pen produces the powsels and thrums of research, imagination and story. These oddments can be shaped into something more than its parts: a vivid tapestry of a creative life that will inspire any reader, and what a celebration it is.
Alan Garner’s book Treacle Walker was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2022.
‘Better than anyone else writing in English today’ THE TIMES
‘A unique genius’NEW STATESMAN
‘One of the most distinct and profound writers we have’GUARDIAN
Praise for Alan Garner -
'His work has a symphonic quality unique in fiction' The Times -
'Garner is his own man … taut, powerful, credible' Penelope Lively, Independent -
”'A unique genius” - New Statesman
”'His is a consummate artist's vision that matches landscape and people and story” - Ralph Elliott, Labrys 7
Praise for Powsels and Thrums -
”'Who could resist such a title? The term derives from handloom weaving, Alan Garner’s great-grandfather’s trade, and refers to the scraps of cloth that weavers kept for themselves - an evocative metaphor for the writings collected herein … These snippets, produces on the same magical loom, together attain a mesmerizing wholeness, vibrating with life and curiosity” - Observer
”'A creative manifesto … We are all the richer for it” - Byline Times
”'Sublime, filled with meaning” - Bookmunch
”'Mind-bending, but all of a piece … Garnerworld might be a narrow plot, but he’s dug it deep, in every sense … Garner is a magus. Read him.” - Guardian
”'A sequence of work collected from various sources across the years which offers a remarkable window into Garner’s mind and heart. I use the word window advisedly, for Garner’s prose is as clear as glass, perfectly conveying the precision of his thought … You don’t have to know his work well to become immersed in this little book” - Spectator
”'He [Alan Garner] calls the pieces collected here the 'powsels and thrums of research and experience and imagination and story'. Together they weave into something quite thrilling” - New Statesman
”'He’s a complete one-off, Garner … Entrancing” - Sam Leith, Telegraph
”'Alan Garner's themes are huge, urgent, compassionate, his voice distinguished by clarity, compression, precision, depth of feeling and sharpness of thought” - Neil Philip, A Fine Anger: A Critical Introduction to the Work of Alan Garner