I was delighted, when I was in a bookshop yesterday, to see a new UK paperback edition of this great work - with the first two volumes out now and the other two due to follow in Jan '17. Although it has continually been reprinted since it was written (its four parts originally dating from 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1993) this latest reincarnation will make accessible to a new generation of children, and hopefully teachers too, one of the recent past's very finest examples of children's fantasy. And this is a wonderful thing. As I am trying to re-emphasise on this blog, many examples of children's fiction from the later half of the twentieth century still have a great deal to offer. They are often somewhat different in feel from today's fantasies, whilst still providing wholly engaging reads. They can potentially extend and enrich that range of reading for contemporary children most valuably . It is not only Dickens et al who are our deserved 'classics'.
The four books which make up what is now known as the Dalemark Quartet are connected in a number of ways (not least, and fairly obviously, by their setting in the fantasy 'Dalemark') but they are not really a sequence as such. Apart from the last, each could stand fairly independently, although greater understanding and enjoyment does come from fitting together their component pieces.
Again apart from the last, they are fairly early works of this wonderful author, and in many ways not completely typical. They are however no less great for that. In fact they are amongst my personal favourites of her books. They are rather more 'serious' fantasy than many of her later books, which are much quirkier and often more overtly humorous, even satirical. And I love them all the more for that.
Cart and Cwydder was the first written and is a rather lyrical fantasy, full of the mysterious power of music, and quite, quite magical.
The second, Drowned Ammet, overlaps the first and has characters in common, but is largely a separate story with different protagonists It is perhaps more powerful and exciting than the first, but also stranger.
The third to be written, The Spellcoats, not just a prequel to the others, but in fact takes place a long time before them, in Dalemark's 'prehistory '. It is a an even stranger and more mystical tale, which puts me in mind in some ways of Le Guin's fantasies . Quite breathtaking in both concept and writing, it is easily my favourite of the four. Well worth not only reading but repeated re-reading. True literature for children..
The final book The Crown of Dalemark was published almost twenty years after the others. It has a more modern feel, and not only because it is partially set in a 'contemporary' Dalemark. It is a multi-layered, multi action story, with rather more of what was to become a Wynne Jones feel. It is also something more akin to 'epic' children's fantasy. It is actually my least favourite of the four, but still well worth reading not least because it draws together the other stories and their characters, bringing everything to a climactic and thrilling conclusion.
The work as a whole is essential reading for anyone instersted in the development of children's fantasy; it is a landmark work. It also remains a truly great read for children of any age and time.
