Alderley Edge 3
Image by echo_unit

Thanks for the link Moss. I am big fan of Garner too.

Megaliths, microliths, burial mounds, sacred caves and stone tools feature through out all his works. In Boneland, his evocation of the prehistoric imagination is very convincing.

He has also proved something of a seer - writing about a spirit beneath Lindow Common long before the discovery of the peat bog man and being instrumental in the recognition of the mines of Alderley as the oldest prehistoric metal working so far discovered.

Interestingly, he believes that there are significant prehistoric finds yet to be discovered beneath Lud Church - based on intuition.

Hi Nix, never knew the last two facts, have Ann Ross's 'Death of a Prince' which is about Lindow Man and the complications of his killing...

Thinking of Garner he has immersed himself in the landscape and of course prehistoric times so the two paths of the narrative of 'Boneland' slide seamlessly in and out.

His opening paragraph....

"He cut the veil of the rock; the hooves clattered the bellowing waters below him in the dark. The lamp brought the moon from the blade, and the blade the bull from the rock. The ice rang"

Takes you immediately to a painted cave such as Chauvet and then into the mind of someone experiencing it, very clever....
The cover of the book is fantastic, almost like black velvet with an entrance leading from a cave into the light.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it seems that capturing the 'sense of place' in words is more captivating than the actuality of visiting.