Editing The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (section)

===Alan Garner===
[[File:Weirdstone.journey.jpg|thumb|375px|right|Map drawn by Charles Green to illustrate the book.]]
[[File:Weirdstone.Edge.jpg|thumb|300px|Map of [[Alderley Edge#The Edge|The Edge]] drawn by Charles Green to illustrate the book.]]
Alan Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in [[Congleton]], Cheshire, on 17 October 1934.<ref name="Philips 1981">[[#Phi81|Philip 1981]]. p. 11.</ref> He grew up not far away, on [[Alderley Edge]], a well-to-do rural Cheshire village that by this time had effectively become a suburb of [[Manchester]].<ref name="Philips 1981"/> Growing up in "a rural working-class family",<ref name="Thompson">[[#Tho89|Thompson and Garner 1989]].</ref> Garner's ancestry had been connected to Alderley Edge since at least the 16th century, with Alan tracing his lineage back to the death of William Garner in 1592.<ref>[[#Gar10|Garner 2010]]. p. 05.</ref> The Garner family had passed on "a genuine oral tradition", teaching their children the folk tales about The Edge, which included a description of a king and his army of knights that slept under it, guarded by a wizard,<ref name="Thompson"/> and in the mid 19th century, Alan's great-great-grandfather Robert had carved the face of a bearded wizard onto the rock of a cliff next to a well that was known in local folklore as the Wizard's Well.<ref>[[#Gar10|Garner 2010]]. pp. 08–09.</ref>

Alan's own grandfather, Joseph Garner, "could read, but didn't and so was virtually unlettered", but instead taught his grandson the various folk tales about The Edge,<ref name="Thompson"/> Alan later remarking that, as a result, he was "aware of [the Edge's] magic" when as a child he would often play there with his friends.<ref>[[#Gar10|Garner 2010]]. p. 09.</ref> The story of the king and the wizard living under the hill played an important part in the young Alan's life, becoming "deeply embedded in my psyche" and influencing his novels, in particular ''The Weirdstone of Brisingamen''.<ref name="Thompson"/>

In 1957 Garner purchased Toad Hall, a late mediaeval building in Blackden, seven miles from Alderley Edge. In the late 19th century the Hall had been divided into two agricultural labourers' cottages, but Garner obtained both for a total of £670, and proceeded to convert them back into a single home.<ref>[[#Bla08|Blackden Trust 2008]].</ref> It was at Toad Hall, on the afternoon of Tuesday 4 September 1957, that Garner set about writing his first novel, which would result in ''The Weirdstone of Brisingamen''.<ref name="Philip 12">[[#Phi81|Philip 1981]]. p. 12.</ref> Whilst engaged in writing in his spare time, Garner attempted to gain employment as a teacher, but soon gave that up, believing that "I couldn't write and teach: the energies were too similar". He began working as a general labourer for four years, remaining unemployed for much of that time.<ref name="Thompson"/>