The story of a girl made out of flowers

“…why didn’t you cut the pattern into flowers from the start, you silly girl?” Roger asks his step sister at the end… because we wouldn’t have been given this gloriously enjoyable story if she had.

This was a re-reading of the book after having seen the actual Owl Service finder plate at the recent Magical Books expedition at Oxford Bodleian Library. After being disappointed Brett my re-reading of two of Alan Garner’s books earlier this year, I was a bit apprehensive about this one. I needn’t have worried. Despite being set in the 60s this book is as current and as fresh as ever. Even the references to film photography and home processing don’t age it.

It’s a story that involves a dysfunctional family and their housekeeper and her son who know more about the secret that lies in the Welsh valley than they ought. It’s a classic tale, from an old Welsh myth, worth reading.