Alan Garner is ineradicable from his native soil: born in Cheshire, near Alderley Edge. The landscape of his childhood and of his ancestors has inspired, imbued, permeated his remarkable novels (Elidor, The Owl Service and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, to name but a few). Now it provides the lifeblood of this small, spare, near-perfect memoir of early childhood.