In 1968 Alan Garner, defending his focus on the adolescent audience, asserted in "A Bit More Practice" that "This group of people is the most important of all, and selfishly, it makes the best audience. Few adults read with a comparable involvement." Yet, Aidan Chambers, a sympathetic reviewer, responded to Garner's most complexly structured novel, Red Shift (1973), by asserting in a 1973 Horn Book review that "Garner has given up any pretense of writing for children and is now writing entirely to please himself and those mature, sophisticated, literate readers who care to study his works." This disparity of perceptions seems to be inherent in Garner's career. He has progressed from an author of conventional fantasy in his first two works, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) and The Moon of Gomrath (1963), to become a writer whose work is engaging, powerful, and uncompromising in its artistry.

Alan Garner, son of Colin and...