Friday 14 November 2008

I commence, en Francais

On Sunday the 9th of November I flew to Paris. 

Lille
 

Saturday 1 November 2008

Alderley Edge and Alan Garner

In the weekend I spent a sleep deprived 24 hours in Manchester to see the stage production of Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. It rained incessantly but I was able to make a trip out to Alderley Edge, the locality that provided the setting for Alan Garner's classics The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath. All the locations I remember from the book were there in vivid surreality, the Wizard's Well with its ancient inscription and the Circle of Stones, a site beloved by Pagans who mistake it for a Druidic momument. (it's not)
The Devil's Grave was there as I imagined it and I wandered around in an state of ethereal wonder, wishing only that I were able to venture into some of the caves that litter the area and that were such a feature in Garner's tales.
I befriended a woman out walking her dog, and found in her a guide for the area and a ride back into town, including a pitstop at the house where Alan Garner lived while he wrote the books I love. It was probably the highlight of my day.