Book of the Month January 2025

Powsels and Thrums

This month’s book of the month is Alan Garner’s Powsels and Thrums.

A lyrical and rich memoir from Alan Garner, author of many of our favourite childhood (and let’s face it adulthood too) books including The Owl Service, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Red Shift amongst a great many others. Starting in his childhood during World War II in Cheshire, through a series of essays, Garner takes us deep into his life and the creative threads that have driven him forwards as a writer.

As Garner writes in the book ’there is a sense that the book already exists, has always existed, and the task is not invention but archeological excavation’.

It is true, this book feels like, as with all of Garner’s work, it has always been; it is part of the landscape of Cheshire, of Alderley Edge and of Blackden, the medieval hall, where Garner lives, and in turn Alan Garner’s writing is part of the landscape of our own lives, of our childhoods and of our memories.