Born October 17, 1934, into the working class at Alderley Edge, Cheshire, in northwestern England, Alan Garner was chronically ill for most of his first ten years, suffering from spinal and cerebral meningitis, diphtheria, pleurisy, and pneumonia. But these early bedridden years were formative for the future author. Forced to entertain himself, he invented stories, inspired by the irregular walls of his room, which he viewed as a fantasy landscape.

When he was eleven, Gamer's health greatly improved and he quickly demonstrated outstanding abilities at the local school in Alderley Edge and at grammar (high) school in Manchester as a student and an athlete. He was so fiercely competitive as a sprinter, he said that he would have quit the sport the moment someone beat him in a race, but no one did. Gamer went on to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied classical Greek literature...