BS: When the Dark Comes Rising

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 08:11 AM

I finished Over Sea, Under Stone last week and started the Dark is Rising this week and I´m already sad that I sahll finish the books around Christmas time. Though they have served ( as this thread has also done) as an inspiration for a story I am writing.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:59 PM

I loved discovering the Cooper books as they were first being published; I remember my heaviness of heart as I closed "Silver on the Tree" for the first time and realized there would be no more books in the series to look forward to! I later had the privilege of working with Susan Cooper on Revels productions in Cambridge Mass- she's a lovely lady. I still reread the books when I can, expecially Dark is Rising which I always start near the solstice.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:02 PM

No! Believe it or not - they provide theatrical LIGHTing services!!!

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 03:48 PM

LOL Blowzabella. Just don´t tell me the import Strawberry flavoured Gumerry!!

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 02:55 PM

This is getting silly - I went to get some stuff out of a large store we have at work, which is in a warehouse, shared with lots of small businesses. A new one has started up across the corridor from us, since I was last there - called 'Merriman Ltd.' Spooky.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 06:59 AM

Green Boy is wonderful! Beautifully written, by someone who has been to, and explored the area it's set in. It's a bit on the short side, and a lot more could have been made of it, but as a bare bones story, it's fantastic. And no, I'm not going to tell you.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 06:34 PM

Me too to Catweazle and Mythago Wood

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 10:58 AM

I think you´re right about the age thing Nick. Though I don´t remember the TV play of Red Shift I distinctly remember `The Owl Service´. At the time I can remember watching Catweazle and Lizzy Dripping that gave the same kind of feeling as TDIR and the Garner books. And I must say that I picked up Robert Holdstock´s `Mythago Wood´ because it had a recommendation by Alan Garner on the cover and have been hooked ever since.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: nickp
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:16 AM

Going back to the original premise, I reread them every few years although not necessarily at any time of the year.

Wonder if its an 'of an age' thing. I also read the Garner books from time to time and did the 'pilgrimage' to Mow Cop after reading Red Shift - anyone remember the 'Play for Today' TV version on BBC (I think it was)? with Lesley Dunlop starring I think. She then went on to 'Angels' as a nurse and various TV soaps, now being in that one set in Yorkshire also as a nurse but not being much of a tv watcher I don't know more than that...

Nick

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 08:33 AM

Funnily enough, I come from the home counties and when I was a kid there was a farm track close to my house called Tramp´s Alley, no one seemed to know why.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: GUEST,Guest AliUK with no cookie
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 07:01 PM

wish I could get some of these other books :o(

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 05:36 PM

I've got Susan Coopers' Green Boy to read downstairs.... sort of saving it for hospital but I suspect it will be started tonight.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 01:56 PM

I was also quite excited when I moved here 15 years ago and discovered that there is a farm just up the road called Walker in the Fields - my (now) husband just couldn't understand the fascination I had with the place. Lots of crows around there too...

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 12:06 PM

This year my eight-year-old son and I shared Susan Cooper's Boggart books and had fun with them. I'm looking forward to when he'll be able to appreciate the Dark Is Rising series.

I loaned my set to a friends kids and didn't get back one. :-(

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 11:30 AM

Wow, great site! I'm the proud owner of a signed copy of Matthew's Dragon, I'm on tenterhooks every time Bratling reads it.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 08:45 AM

why doesn´t the blue clicky work???!!!!

a link outside the mudcat must use http:// as part of the address. Link corrected - joeclone

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 08:45 AM

For those of you who may like to know more of Susan Cooper go here:
www.thelostland.com

It´s very informative.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 06:27 AM

Ooo.. always wanted to go to Alderley Edge but not take the family - they wouldn't understand.

In Wales, I was lucky in that we had a minibus, a car and 3 drivers. The shopping people went shopping in the minibus, the walkers in the car to their various pursuits and all met up in the evening. Of the two groups, those who had spent the day clambering over rocks, sliding down stream beds and going 'wow' at the amazing scenery, were far less footsore and bedraggled than those who had fought their way through air conditioned shops and tiled floors going 'wow' at the prices of stuff you could get in the local market!

If I ever get the chance, I'd like to go back and see Tal y Llyn without the veil of rain or the 8 other people in the back of the bus whinging about why we'd stopped.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 08:47 PM

Liz,
I did that as well, but on my own as I couldn´t persuade anyone to go with me. I also spent many hours on Alderley Edge in Cheshire...the frisson I felt at the entrance of the Svart Alfar cave has never left me.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 07:02 PM

On the strength of what I read in 'The Grey King', I once persuaded a whole group of colleagues to go to Wales for a weekend (OK, there was a shopping village nearby) just so I could go walking on Cader Idris and see The Pleasant Lake. Oddly enough, I found the walking guide yesterday..... One of the best weekends I've had for a long time. Cader was just as eerie as the book and the Breath of the Grey King was in evidence - well it was January!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 06:23 PM

I started out with Over Sea, Under Stone and then carried on from there. I found the writing style of the first, quite different to the others - it was only when I had reached the grand old analytical age of about 14 that I noticed that she wrote the first book in (about) '63 and didn't write the next one for a good few years.
I have never been able to look at a gypsy caravan (vardo) in quite the same light. I think that Dark is Rising is probably my favourite of them all, altho I love Greenwitch too. I always found The Grey King very chilling (hate it when animals got hurt). I confess, I've read Silver on the Tree less than the others (occasionally have run out of time to get through the whole series) and that one makes me a bit sad.

My friend and I actually made a song out of the poem 'When the Dark comes Rising' (Six Shall Turn it Back) etc and sang it in several folk clubs (probably twenty years ago now)and I even had a candle sconce made for her which held nine candles and was in the shape of a circle quartered by a cross!!!

Scary huh?!? They are a blooming good read though. We also always wondered if it was a coincidence that the two families involved were called the Stantons and the Drews - and there is a stone circle in the village of Stanton Drew, which isn't far from Glastonbury.

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 09:37 AM

The first book in the series that I read was 'The Dark is Rising' because I got it from the Puffin Book Club ( does it still exist?) when I was at junior school. I liked the look of the cover and I had just finished reading the Narnia series ( which is also an annual ritual)and was looking for more of the same. The rest I managed to get from the local public library. then about 20 years ago I came across the collected series which has been with me ever since. Alan Garner was an adult addition to my reading list. I remember the 'Owl Service' on the telly when I was a kid, but only discovered the books as an adult, with the 'Weirdstone of Brisingamen', 'Moon over Gomrath' etc. coming later. Unfortunately I have none of those with me, and by weird chance came across 'Red Shift' ( a bloody good book and really adult for an adolescent reader) recently in a second hand bookstore her in Brazil!!

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: MBSLynne
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 05:12 AM

Funny you should ask that question! My eight year old daughter has just been reading out to me the list of books on the back cover of "Heidi" (which I loved as a child) and I've been saying whether I've read them or not, which started a discussion between my husband and me about what books we'd read as children. I'd read 26 of the list of 50, which were all 'classics'. I loved the "Anne of Green Gables" books, "Milly Molly Mandy", some books by someone called Elliston Trevor that I've forgotten but know I liked. Has anyone heard of him? I haven't for years. I could go on forever now I've started that train of thought! I didn't read "The Dark is Rising" until I was grown up and my friend@s kids were reading it. I also didn't meet "Swallows and Amazons" until I was grown up and I love them. This is long enough so far. I'll come back with some more later when I see what other people say!

Subject: RE: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: Blowzabella
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 08:06 PM

I do want to post here when I've got a mo, so don't want it to disappear yet!!!

Subject: BS: When the Dark Comes Rising
From: AliUK
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 07:41 AM

As a sub thread to the two reading threads. I thought I would create this one. I was suprised at the amount of people who actually read The Dark Is Rising sequence and how many of us re-read it around Christmas. Perhaps it´s because of the second book, which happens at Christmas. What are your favourite parts?In fact what are your favourite books you read as a child/Teenager, just to broaden the base.