But he is the only one in the end to hold to the promise all four made; the only one to stay true to the memory as time passes. Without losing any of the story’s association with post-War Manchester, Garner ties it to a much older tradition. Garner's skill at building atmosphere is very evident here as the mundane becomes charged with mystery. While writing and getting published may not carry quite the same danger of universal destruction that the Watson children face in taking on the forces in Elidor, the decision of Roland and his brothers and sister to follow an uncertain path wherever it leads is an echo of Garner’s own courage.

Roland has strange glimpses - some of which fill him with fear, but of course nobody believes him, and this is a trigger for him to push and push until ultimately the inevitable happens. Celyn enjoyed it too, though the passage of 50 years, combined with her own limited experience of the world, did require me to explain a number of things. Inevitably during the game which follows, someone kicks the ball through one of the church's remaining windows, and the glass crashes into splinters.However, in the real world, the items cause problems with the power source and give off static electricity. When only Roland is left, he finds that the heavy iron-handled door which the mysterious lame fiddler urges him to open, is a portal into the troubled land of Elidor. After a detour down a creepy backstreet, they come upon a derelict church and a mysterious fiddle player. It's a pretty surreal little tale (which is not a bad thing, as I love surreal things), and there are plenty of creepy moments. Nevertheless a quest has been undertaken, and in very traditional terms; to go into the Magic place – the place of death, the dark tower, the underworld – and rescue the good that is trapped there.

Garner’s presentation of a protagonist who cannot face up to this question, is his original and personal use of the traditional framework.It features four young teenage children, David, Nicholas, Helen and Roland, who inadvertently break though the fabric of time and space at a weak point, to find themselves in another universe. So when the other world reaches out for the items, the children are not prepared and keep missing the signs. Mooching around with a football one cold afternoon, the four Watson children roam inside a Victorian red-brick church which is about to be demolished. Although Elidor doesn’t quite equal the rich, complex texture of his best work, The Owl Service for example, it’s still an immensely satisfying experience, packed with memorable images: all presented in evocative prose that suggests Garner’s expectation that his young audience would be more than able to cope with unfamiliar language or references.

The children never become that much more than name tags with a bit of sibling interaction and a nice slant-ways glance at life in a suburban family in 1960s Manchester. Like many of Garner's books, the emphasis of the narrative is on the hardships, cost and practicalities of the choices and responsibilities that the protagonists face.

Note to JK Rowling: Read this and see how it's possible to tell a magical, involving story in 20 chapters and 200 pages. In the silence of the winter evening, after the television and radio pack up, the family listen with growing disquiet as first the electric razor upstairs starts itself, then the electric mixer and the washing machine in the kitchen. He is also the author of The Owl Service (1967) as well as many other novels, anthologies, collections of folklore and fairy-tales, radio, television and stage plays, and a memoir, Where Shall We Run To? He takes us back to LeGuin’s assertion that Fantasy is about, that its actions take place in, the unconscious mind.