Alan Garner OBE (born in Congleton, Cheshire, in 1934) spent his childhood in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. Many of his works, including The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath, are drawn from local legends. The Owl Service won both the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Carnegie Medal in 1968. The Stone Book (which received the Phoenix Award in 1996) is poetic in style and inspiration. His collection of essays and public talks, The Voice That Thunders, contains autobiographical material as well as critical reflection upon folklore and language, literature and education, the nature of myth and time.

Alan Garner OBE (born in Congleton, Cheshire, in 1934) spent his childhood in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. Many of his works, including The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and its sequel The Moon of Gomrath, are drawn from local legends. The Owl Service won both the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize and the Carnegie Medal in 1968. The Stone Book (which received the Phoenix Award in 1996) is poetic in style and inspiration. His collection of essays and public talks, The Voice That Thunders, contains autobiographical material as well as critical reflection upon folklore and language, literature and education, the nature of myth and time.