Something Alan Garner wrote

From UoWiki

The stories and places are bigger than I am and will not be changed substantially by my interference. But Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at Bristol, is developing an interesting hypothesis: that what we learn as history is, rather, an artefact, since something concocted is neater and more satisfying than the incomplete and unsatisfactory truth.

This interpretation is already showing in the public perception of Strandloper, where my tweakings are starting to appear in the local history books that purport to give the biography of William Buckley. If Hutton is right, then the valley of Thursbitch should abound with the undisciplined within two decades, intent on validating the fiction and closed to the more imponderable that is all around.

Some years ago, I was conducting an illicit archaeological probe on Alderley Edge, which involved my head being in a hole and my bottom in the air. The unmistakable sound of an enthusiastic teacher began to impinge. I looked up and saw her approaching, waving The Weirdstone of Brisingamen at the trees. Behind her straggled a line of not so delirious children. I kept my head low, and, as the end of the line passed, one child said to another, "Well, I don't believe there is an Alan Garner." It was hard not to lift my head and say, "Me too."

Link: Guardian Q&A with Alan Garner

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