On a recent trip to Cornwall, I was disappointed when an attempted quest to a promising looking stone structure (a quest for a magical artifact, naturally) was scuppered by a very high fence, an unamused looking security guard and a sign saying ‘by appointment only’. As anyone else who spent a part of their childhood (okay, and parts of their recent adulthood) in the seventies weirdness of the books of Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Penelope Lively et al knows, the forces of the Dark do not work ‘by appointment only’.
The prophecies contained within won the 1997 Pegasus Award for 'Best Sorcery Song'
There are so many things I loved about these books (how can one resist the creepy crockery tracing and murderous sexual jealousy of The Owl Service? Although, as an 8-year-old the sexual jealousy bit may have gone slightly over my head), but there were some general features that were literary catnip, sending me scrambling desperately for my library card so that I could read way past my bedtime in secret (with a torch hidden under the duvet, of course, a habit which my mother assured me would ’strain my eyes’ in old age, ie. now):
1. Ominous standing stones – for aligning with other ominous landscape features.
2. Crows/ravens/rooks – for anthropomorphism and/or enhancement of general ominousness.
3. Mysterious, enigmatic, and sometimes ominous extended members of the family – may or may not be reincarnations of Merlin, or even agents of the Dark.
4. Swords, chalices, parchments – for waving, glowing at important moments, and signifying stuff.
5. Cornwall, Dorset, Alderley Edge or Wales – it’s hard to be ominous in Milton Keynes.
6. Sandwiches – magical happenings were normally stumbled upon while on a country walk with your siblings or the slightly weird local loner. This, of course, involved sandwiches packed by the housekeeper of the holiday home/the extended family member you were staying with.
7. Total ignorance on the part of the parents. As a child this was the best part, really. The magic was all fine and dandy, but it was the fact that you could have your life endangered by masters of the Dark without your parents knowing that really did it for me.
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