Alan Garner

Alan Garner has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours List for services to children's literature

Late one April morning in 1980, children's author Alan Garner suddenly felt numbness spread through his body. He was sitting at home listening to Benjamin Britten's Serenade For Tenor And Horn, when the music began to provoke terrifying images of death in his mind. Overwhelmed by the blankness of the world and himself, he began to cry.

Alan Garner draws inspiration from his native Cheshire. He describes his obsessive sense of place to Nicci Gerrard