Editing Alan Garner (section)

===Early life: 1934–56===

{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|"I had to get aback [to familial ways of doing things], by using skills that had been denied to my ancestors; but I had nothing that they would have called worthwhile. My ability was in language and languages. I had to use that, somehow. And writing was a manual craft. But what did I know that I could write about? I knew the land." |source = Alan Garner, 2010{{sfn|Garner|2010|p=8}} }}

Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in [[Congleton]], Cheshire, on 17 October 1934.{{sfn|Philip|1981|p=11}} He was raised in [[Alderley Edge]], a well-to-do village that had effectively become a suburb of [[Manchester]].{{sfn|Philip|1981|p=11}} His "rural working-class family",{{sfn|Thompson|Garner|1989}} had been connected to Alderley Edge since at least the sixteenth century and could be traced back to the death of William Garner in 1592.{{sfn|Garner|2010|p=5}} Garner has stated that his family had passed on "a genuine oral tradition" involving folk tales about The Edge, which included a description of a king and his army of knights who slept under it, guarded by a wizard.{{sfn|Thompson|Garner|1989}} In the mid-nineteenth century Alan's great-great-grandfather Robert had carved the face of a bearded wizard onto the face of a cliff next to a well, known locally at that time as the Wizard's Well.{{sfn|Garner|2010|pp=8–9}}

Robert Garner and his other relatives had all been craftsmen, and, according to Garner, each successive generation had tried to "improve on, or do something different from, the previous generation".{{sfn|Garner|2010|p=7}} Garner's grandfather, Joseph Garner, "could read, but didn't and so was virtually unlettered". Instead, he taught his grandson the folk tales he knew about The Edge.{{sfn|Thompson|Garner|1989}} Garner later remarked that as a result, he was "aware of [the Edge's] magic" as a child, and he and his friends often played there.{{sfn|Garner|2010|p=9}} The story of the king and the wizard living under the hill played an important part in his life, becoming, he explained, "deeply embedded in my psyche" and heavily influencing his later novels.{{sfn|Thompson|Garner|1989}}

Garner faced several life-threatening childhood illnesses, which left him bed ridden for much of the time.{{sfnm|1a1=Philip|1y=1981|1p=11|2a1=Garth|2y=2013}} He attended a local village school, where he found that, despite being praised for his intelligence, he was punished for speaking in his native [[Cheshire dialect]];{{sfn|Philip|1981|p=11}} for instance, when he was six his primary school teacher washed his mouth out with soapy water.{{sfn|Garth|2013}} Garner then won a place at [[Manchester Grammar School]], where he received his secondary education; entry was [[Means test#United Kingdom|means-tested]], resulting in his school fees being waived.{{sfnm|1a1=Philip|1y=1981|1p=11|2a1=Garth|2y=2013}} Rather than focusing his interest on creative writing, it was here that he excelled at [[Sprint (running)|sprinting]].{{sfn|Philip|1981|p=12}} He used to go jogging along the highway, and later claimed that in doing so he was sometimes accompanied by the mathematician [[Alan Turing]], who shared his fascination for the [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Disney]] film ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Garner |first=Alan |title=My hero: Alan Turing |date=11 November 2011 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/11/alan-turing-my-hero-alan-garner |access-date=18 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Jordan |first=Justine |date=2024-12-14 |title='It can feel quite mysterious': Alan Garner on writing, folklore and experiencing time slips in the Pennines |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/14/we-shared-a-quick-sense-of-humor-novelist-alan-garner-on-alan-turing-and-experiencing-time-slips-in-the-pennines |access-date=2024-12-14 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Garner was then conscripted into [[national service]], serving for a time with the [[Royal Artillery]] while posted to [[Woolwich]] in [[South East (London sub region)|Southeast London]].{{sfnm|1a1=Philip|1y=1981|1p=12|2a1=Garth|2y=2013}}

At school, Garner had developed a keen interest in the work of [[Aeschylus]] and [[Homer]], as well as the [[Ancient Greek language]].{{sfn|Garth|2013}} Thus, he decided to pursue the study of [[Classics]] at [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], passing his entrance exams in January 1953; at the time he had thoughts of becoming a professional academic.{{sfn|Garth|2013}} He was the first member of his family to receive anything more than a basic education, and he noted that this removed him from his "cultural background" and led to something of a schism with other members of his family, who "could not cope with me, and I could not cope with" them.{{sfn|Thompson|Garner|1989}} Looking back, he remarked, "I soon learned that it was not a good idea to come home excited over irregular verbs".{{sfn|Garth|2013}} In 1955, he joined the university theatrical society, playing the role of [[Mark Antony]] in a performance of [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Antony and Cleopatra]]'' where he co-starred alongside [[Dudley Moore]] and where [[Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking|Kenneth Baker]] was the stage manager.{{sfn|Garth|2013}} In August 1956, he decided that he wished to devote himself to novel writing, and decided to abandon his university education without taking a degree; he left Oxford in late 1956.{{sfnm|1a1=Philip|1y=1981|1p=12|2a1=Garth|2y=2013}} He nevertheless felt that the academic rigour which he learned during his university studies has remained "a permanent strength through all my life".{{sfn|Garth|2013}}