Alan Garner was born in Cheshire on the 17th October 1934, and his childhood was spent in Alderley Edge, where his family has lived for more than four hundred years. His attendance at the local primary school was interrupted by several serious illnesses, from three of which he nearly died.
At the age of eleven he went to Manchester Grammar School and became the fastest schoolboy sprinter in Britain.
Before going to Oxford, he spent two years’ National Service as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. Realising then that his original ambition to become Professor of Greek was no longer valid, he decided to become a writer. He found his present mediaeval home, dug himself in, and wrote.
He has won many awards, including the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, the Phoenix Award of America and the Karl Edward Wagner Special Award from the British Fantasy Society.
In 2001, Alan was awarded the OBE for services to literature, and in 2007 he was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in recognition for his achievements in advancing the archaeological understanding of Cheshire.