In Red Shift, conventional time means even less, and physical space even more. Lives which appear to be lived in different historical periods are bound together by a power that is outside space and time. At the bottom level, my stories have to work as entertainment, keep a reader turning the page to find out what happens next. At the top level, they have to work for me, say what I want to express. In fact, I must write poetry, making words work on more than one level, subjecting myself to the poetic disciplines - pace, compression, simplicity. Alan Garner's book The Owl Service was widely acclaimed: Without doubt, Mr. Alan Garner is one of the most exciting writers for young people today. He is producing work with strong plot structure, perceptive characterisation and vivid language. - Times Educational Supplement. The Owl Service is not meant only for children or anyone else; it's a novel; and not many better novels will be published this year. - John Rowe Townsend, The Guardian. Alan Garner is one of the outstanding present-day writers for children; and The Owl Service takes him a step further into more magical, legendary adult worlds than he's gone so far. - Isabel Quigly, Catholic Herald. No confirmation of the stature of Alan Garner as a writer of children's fiction is needed; if it were, his latest novel, The Owl Service, would establish it beyond doubt. - Financial Times.