The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

‘This night will be bad, and tomorrow will be beyond imagining…’

Every year people gather on social media to read, or re-read, The Dark is Rising. This much-loved fantasy classic is set over midwinter and you can either dive in and devour it whole, or start it on Midwinter Eve and ration it day-by-day until Twelfth Night.

It’s Christmas-time in the Stanton family house: presents, carol singing, good cheer. But for eleven-year-old Will Stanton, something sinister has begun, inching round his subconscious, shouting silent warnings he can’t decipher. Then on Midwinter Day, Will wakes up to a different world: silent, covered in snow and ancient forest, a world of another time. A world where evil lurks.

Because Will is not the ordinary boy, he always thought he was. He is the last of the Old Ones and the power to vanquish the evil magic of the Dark lies within him.

We have lots of copies in the Library, or maybe consider getting your own and starting an annual tradition.

#TheDarkIsReading

You can find a great discussion of the book from the wonderful Backlisted Podcast.

I hope you enjoy it.

Hilary Cummings, Librarian, The Kayton Library