In Alan Garner\u2019s <\/span>The Owl Service <\/span><\/i>(1967) three teenagers spend a summer together in a remote Welsh valley. Slowly they become aware that they are being pushed by forces in the landscape to act out a strange and bloody story from <\/span>The Mabinogion, <\/span><\/i>and the uncanny environment begins to give seemingly innocuous objects a terrible significance. An old book blown in the wind; a plate\u2019s floral pattern; a stone with a perfectly circular hole bored through it: they somehow tell the same tragic story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I think this valley really is kind of reservoir, [\u2026]\u2019 says one character, meditating on the mythic power that has entangled them. \u2018I think the power is always there and always will be. It builds up and builds up until it has to be let loose \u2013 like filling and emptying a dam. And it works through people\u2019. We see how family history and national history, how hormones and class, and how the forces of a place work through us and use us. How much can we resist our environment? No easy answers are given. \u2018She wants to be flowers,\u2019 goes one of the narrative\u2019s cryptic refrains, \u2018but you make her owls\u2019.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Alan Garner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2560,"featured_media":3048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-bookshelf","9":"with-featured-image"},"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662.png",859,877,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-300x300.png",300,300,true],"medium":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-441x450.png",441,450,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-768x784.png",768,784,true],"large":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-751x1024.png",751,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662.png",859,877,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662.png",859,877,false],"ab-block-post-grid-landscape":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-600x400.png",600,400,true],"ab-block-post-grid-square":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-600x600.png",600,600,true],"atomic-blocks-featured-image":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662.png",859,877,false],"atomic-blocks-featured-image-wide":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662.png",859,877,false],"atomic-blocks-logo":["https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-e1747043503662-300x306.png",300,306,true]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/more.bham.ac.uk\/artsofplace\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-12-at-10.46.31-330x450.png\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"