susan cooper the dark is rising books in order

So does Herne the Hunter, roaming riotously from his traditional home in Windsor. Wayland the Smith, the mythic English ideal of a blacksmith, turns up. Ancient wisdom is encoded in precise histories of these local places.

The book is set in Buckinghamshire, where Cooper grew up – but the later novels take us to the Welsh mountain of Cadair Idris and the lake of Tal-y-llyn, as well as the Cornish village of Mevagissey (here called Trewissick). That is clearly why it attracts Macfarlane, once described as “the great nature writer, and nature poet, of this generation”. The Dark is Rising – and the five books of the sequence it underpins – are deeply rooted in the folklore of the British landscape. Yet she also has a rare capacity to understand shared ritual, the value of local places and their heritage, and the comforting rhythms of song and verse. There’s plenty, as in all good children’s books, about the value of love and good faith. Her solutions have something to offer the nation, too. Yet as we approach another disrupted, unsettled Christmas, Cooper’s depiction of a festive Britain thrown into chaos feels familiar on a political level. These forces of darkness take ingratiating human forms.

If you have to pretend to Grandma that you’re still on speaking terms with your in-laws this year, you may empathise with Will’s inability to explain to his oblivious parents that they’ve accidentally invited the “Dark Rider” and overlord of all evil to join their Christmas lunch. Cooper’s book, which has been adapted by the scholar Robert Macfarlane and theatre-maker Simon McBurney, is the story of Will, a young boy who discovers over the 12 days of Christmas that his family are being stalked by primeval forces of horror, who have identified Will as a threat. Susan Cooper’s novel, The Dark is Rising, which is airing over Christmas in an adaptation by BBC Radio, is also underpinned by song. I went through a stage around the age of 10 when I recited the full lyrics on a continuous loop for days and must have been insufferable. It’s impossible to think of the Lord of the Rings trilogy without hearing in one’s mind Sauron’s mantra: “One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” In JRR Tolkien’s prequel, The Hobbit, we get the cheerier “Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold”, which articulates the dwarves’ quest to reclaim gold from a dragon.

Even if, usually, we must imagine the melody for ourselves. Tree of life: Author Susan Cooper helps to pass on traditions with song and verse (Photo: Getty Images)Įach of the great fantasy novels for children gives its readers a song to chant.

Susan cooper the dark is rising books in order