Look up Alan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Alan may refer to:

People[link]

• Alan (given name), the given name

• alan (Chinese singer), female Chinese singer active in Japan
• Alan (Mexican singer), Mexican boy band singer
• Alan (wrestler), aka Gato Eveready, who wrestles in Asistencia Asesoría y Administración
• Alan I, King of Brittany, the Great
• Alan II, Duke of Brittany
• Alan III, Duke of Brittany
• Alan IV, Duke of Brittany, aka Alan Fergant ("the Younger" in Breton language)
• Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury
• Alan of Lynn, 15th-century monk

Saint Alan or Alain

• Alain de la Roche, or Alanus de Rupe, canonized saint, "Alan of the Rock"
• Alain de Solminihac (1593-1659), French Catholic religious reformer and bishop of Cahors

Fictional characters

• Alan (Sesame Street) in the television series Sesame Street
• Alan (Modern Toss) in the television series Modern Toss
• Alan, the main antagonist in the video game Kya: Dark Lineage
• Alan, the main character in David Firth's animation Alan

Places[link]

• Alan, Russia, name of several rural localities in Russia
• Alan, Haute-Garonne, a commune in France

Other meanings[link]

• Alan (automobile), a short-lived German automobile
• Alan (crater), a crater on the Moon
• Alan (mythical creature), a race of winged spirits from Tinguian folklore
• Cyclone Alan (disambiguation), several tropical storms

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Alan"
• Alans
• Alen (given name)
• Allan (disambiguation)
• Alleine
• Allen (disambiguation)

References[link]

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Alan Alan
Alan Alan at The Magic Spot
Born	Alan Rabinowitz November 1926
Occupation	escapologist and magician

Alan Alan (born Alan Rabinowitz in November 1926) is a retired British escapologist and magician.^[1] He originated tricks that have subsequently become familiar features of the repertoire of other performers and he has been honoured by The Magic Circle.^[2]

Alan achieved fame through a series of stunts staged for the media. He made headline news in 1949 when a "buried alive" stunt, performed for Pathe News, nearly went wrong.^[2] He is credited with devising the burning-rope straitjacket escape,^[3] in which he is suspended upside-down from a crane with a length of thick rope doused with petrol, once ignited there is a short time to escape before the rope burns through. He appeared in a number of television magic shows, including The Magic of David Copperfield.^[4] He also "taught" the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs prison how to escape from handcuffs in his performance with a number of other magicians.^[5] In more recent years he was seen on Simon Drake's TV show Secret Cabaret.

He was proprietor of Alan Alan's Magic Spot, a magic shop based on Southampton Row, London until its lease expired in the mid 1990s.

Alan's standing and influence in the world of magic was formally recognised in 2006 when The Magic Circle chose him to receive the coveted Maskelyne award for services to British magic.^[2]

References[link]

This magic-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Alan García
Alan García in Brasilia, 9 November 2006.
President of Peru
In office 28 July 2006 – 28 July 2011
Prime Minister	Jorge del Castillo Yehude Simon Javier Velásquez José Antonio Chang Rosario Fernández
Vice President	Luis Giampietri Lourdes Mendoza
Preceded by	Alejandro Toledo
Succeeded by	Ollanta Humala
In office 28 July 1985 – 28 July 1990
Prime Minister	Luis Alva Castro Armando Villanueva Luis Alberto Sánchez
Vice President	Luis Alberto Sánchez Luis Alva Castro
Preceded by	Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Succeeded by	Alberto Fujimori
Leader of the Peruvian Aprista Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 1985
Preceded by	Armando Villanueva
Personal details
Born	(1949-05-23) 23 May 1949 (age 63) Lima, Peru
Political party	American Popular Revolutionary Alliance
Spouse(s)	Carla Buscaglia (First wife, divorced) Pilar Nores
Residence	Casa de Pizarro
Alma mater	Pontifical Catholic University of Peru National University of San Marcos Complutense University of Madrid University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature
Website	www.presidencia.gob.pe

Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalaŋ ɡaˈβɾjel luðˈβiɣ ɣarˈsi.a ˈpeɾes]; born 23 May 1949) was the President of Peru, having won the 2006 elections on 4 June 2006 in a run-off against Union for Peru candidate Ollanta Humala.^[1] He is the leader of the APRA and the only party member ever to have served as President of Peru. He served a first term as President from 1985 to 1990. His first term was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest and violence. He ran unsuccessfully for the Presidency in 2001, losing in a run-off to Alejandro Toledo.^[2] During his second term Peru averaged seven percent GDP growth a year, held inflation below three percent annually and collated Peru's foreign exchange reserves at US$47 billion; however his tenureship also resulted in increased environment damage according to critics and increased social conflict, according to the national human rights ombudsman's office.^[3]

First Presidency[link]

García won the elections on 14 April 1985 with 45% of the votes. Since he did not receive the 50% of the votes required to win the presidency, García had to enter a run-off against Alfonso Barrantes (the leftist former mayor of Lima) of the United Left party. Barrantes, however, retired and decided not to enter the run-off, saying he did not want to prolong the political uncertainty of the country. García was thus declared president on 1 June and officially took power on 28 July 1985. For the first time in its sixty-year history, the APRA party came to power in Peru. Aged 36, García was dubbed "Latin America's Kennedy", becoming the region's youngest president at the time, and the second youngest president in Peruvian history (the youngest was Juan Crisostomo Torrico in 1842, aged 34).

Despite his initial popularity among Peruvian voters, García's term in office was marked by bouts of hyperinflation, which reached 7,649% in 1990 and had a cumulative total of 2,200,200% over the five years, thereby profoundly destabilising the Peruvian economy. Owing to such chronic inflation, the Peruvian currency, the sol, was replaced by the Inti in mid-1985, which itself was replaced by the nuevo sol ("new sun") in July 1991, at which time the new sol had a cumulative value of one billion (1,000,000,000) old soles. During García's administration, the per capita annual income of Peruvians fell to $720 (below the level of 1960) and Peru's GDP dropped 20%. By the end of his term, national reserves were negative $900 million.

According to studies of the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics and the United Nations Development Programme,^[4] around the start of his presidency, 41.6% of Peruvians lived in poverty. During his presidency, this percentage increased by 13% (to 55%) in 1991. García also made an attempt to nationalise the banking and insurance industries. He incurred the wrath of the International Monetary Fund and the financial community by unilaterally declaring a limit on debt repayment equal to 10% of the Gross National Product, thereby isolating Peru from the international financial markets.

The economic turbulence exacerbated social tensions in Peru and contributed in part to the rise of the violent rebel movement known as the Shining Path, which launched the internal conflict in Peru and began attacking electrical towers, causing a number of blackouts in Lima. The García administration unsuccessfully sought a military solution to the growing terrorism, allegedly committing human rights violations, which are still under investigation. These include the Accomarca massacre, where 47 campesinos were gunned down by Peruvian armed forces in August 1985, the Cayara massacre (May 1988) in which some thirty people were killed and dozens disappeared, and the summary execution of more than 200 inmates during prison riots in Lurigancho, San Juan Bautista (El Frontón) and Santa Bárbara in 1986. According to an official inquiry, an estimated 1,600 forced disappearances took place during García's presidency. His own personal involvement in these events is not clear. García was allegedly tied to the paramilitary Rodrigo Franco Command, which is accused of carrying out political murders in Peru during García's presidency. A U.S. declassified report, written in late 1987, said that García's party, APRA, and top government officials were running a paramilitary group, responsible for the attempted bombing of the El Diario newspaper, then linked to Shining Path, had sent people to train in North Korea and may have been involved in executions.^[5] According to investigative journalist Lucy Komisar, the report made it clear that it believed García had given the orders.^[5]

His presidency left the country with hyperinflation, isolated from the international financial community, with negative reserves of US$900 million, continuous subversive activities by the Shining Path, a great increase in poverty levels and a multi-million dollar investment in an electric train in Lima that was not finished during his first government, and is still under construction as of 2011. His critics claim many poor decisions he made created an environment that led to the rise of an authoritarian leader like Alberto Fujimori. In order to keep him away from future elections, García was accused of multiple charges of corruption during Fujimori's government. Investigations were archived without verdict and the statute of limitations has expired.^{[citation needed]}

Post-presidency[link]

In 1992, García went into exile in Colombia and later in France after Fujimori's auto-coup during which the military raided his house. The new government re-opened charges against him for allegedly taking millions of dollars in bribes.^{[citation needed]} He denied the charges, and in 2001 Peru's Supreme Court ruled that the statute of limitations had run out following a recommendation by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.^[6]

There were charges of corruption involved in this decision, as at the same time a law was struck down by Congress which prevented anyone who had been investigated for charges of corruption in a public office to run for president (what his supporters in Congress dubbed the "anti-Alan law"). García could not justify his homes in Bogotá and Paris, in addition to having his daughter enrolled in a top private school in France, if his only income was from being an occasional guest speaker and the author of a few books with poor sales.^{[citation needed]}

His long-time ally Jorge Del Castillo represented him as his lawyer and performed very heavy lobbying to allow García to legally return to Peru. After Castillo was elected to Congress, he had much more leverage for García's defence. The main accuser and enemy of García, Fernando Olivera, left Peru after Fujimori's fall, and is still being sought for corruption charges.^{[citation needed]}

After living eight years and ten months in neighbouring Colombia and in France, he returned to Peru in 2001, following Alberto Fujimori's resignation from the presidency. As it had been rumoured for many years, García ran for president in the new elections called by transitory president Valentín Paniagua, with Jorge Del Castillo as his campaign manager. García competed against some of his harshest critics and worst political enemies, including Lourdes Flores Nano and Fernando Olivera.^{[citation needed]} His campaign election theme was that he was the most experienced candidate and thus the most prepared, as he had made mistakes before as President, and had learned from them. He attributed the problems of the Peruvian economy in his first presidency to the economic problems of Argentina and Brazil at the time. He distanced himself from accusations that he had been protected by Fujimori during his exile, and he would switch the topic when he was asked about his endorsement of Fujimori in the 1990 election.^{[citation needed]}

Geographic distribution of second-round votes, by winning candidate.

  Alan García, >2/3 of valid votes

  Alan García, <2/3 of valid votes

  Ollanta Humala, >2/3

  Ollanta Humala, <2/3

He finished a distant second in the first round, far behind Alejandro Toledo, but just slightly above Flores Nano (by 1%), enough to take him to a run-off, as Toledo had failed to obtain the 50% majority. During the campaign for the run-off Toledo's popularity decreased, while García's popularity increased with his characteristic rhetoric and classical oratory delivery, which had helped him to get elected in 1985. García managed to obtain 48% of the vote in the run-off, losing by a close margin to Toledo. This was despite the movement "Voto Nulo" ("blank" or void vote), led by Jaime Bayly, a popular writer and TV presenter, and Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the famous novelist, in which celebrities asked Peruvian voters to vote for neither candidate and instead intentionally damage their vote cards or leave them blank. After the 2001 election, García, as leader of the APRA party, led the main opposition.^{[citation needed]}

García officially started his campaign for the April 2006 presidential election in Lima on 18 February 2005. Ollanta Humala won the initial election with 30.62% of valid votes, followed by García, who got 24.32% (against Lourdes Flores' 23.81%). As no candidate won a majority, a run-off election was held on 4 June 2006 between Humala and García. Preliminary official results gave García an advantage over his run-off opponent, who conceded defeat.^{[citation needed]}

On 28 April 2006, prior to the run-off, García had become involved in a dispute with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. As Chávez, for the second time in the Peruvian Presidential elections, declared his support for Ollanta Humala, García's opponent, and referred to García as a "robber", a "bandit", and "the Carlos Andrés Pérez of Peru". In response, García stated that Chávez was "not acting as a statesman" and challenged Chávez to a debate to be hosted by CNN. García called on the Organization of American States to intervene in the matter.^[7][8]

On 31 May 2006, a few days before the run-off election García's economic adviser Enrique Cornejo told the media that if García won in the second round, his government would renew a $422 million aid package with the International Monetary Fund.^[9] Anoop Singh, the IMF's Western Hemisphere Director, responded positively by saying he was "impressed by the vision of the president-elected for Peru, especially his commitment to applying prudent economic policy."^[10]

Second Presidency[link]

On 28 July 2006, García was sworn in as the new president of Peru, after winning approximately 53% of the nationwide vote in the elections held on 4 June. He had huge support in Lima and the northern coast, but did not get the votes of Humala's strongholds such as the southern region (mostly impoverished but including major cities as Cuzco and Arequipa) and the rain forest areas. A third of the voters said that voting for him was "voting for the lesser of two evils": although many Peruvians had a very negative impression of García after his first government, they were scared by rumours that Humala would create a government based on Fidel Castro's Cuba and would turn Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, into the virtual ruler of Peru, due to Chavez's patronage of Humala's party. Humala denied these rumours, but his conflicting statements about his government's vision and Chávez's strong campaigning for him created enough suspicions among voters to cost him the ballotage. With 36 seats, APRA has the second largest bloc in the 120-seat unicameral Congress which was sworn in a couple of days before the President. With 45 seats, Humala's Union for Peru Party has the largest bloc, although it has divided itself up into three factions.^[11]

Following his victory García stated that he sought good relations with Venezuela and did not intend to start a movement in the region against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. He stated that he would review a trade agreement with the US established by the Toledo administration before deciding to ratify the agreement. Although APRA's position towards the free trade agreement was qualified as ambiguous by their detractors, APRA had always maintained that they would approve the agreement with proper compensations for wheat, cotton and yellow corn producers.^{[citation needed]}. On 28 June, one month before García was sworn in, his party gave 25 of the 79 votes (almost one third of the votes) that ratified the agreement in the Peruvian Congress, one month prior to the new legislature that will include the Union for Peru congressmen, who are opposed to the agreement with the USA. The new Congress will still include a majority favourable to the free trade pact. Peru now awaits the agreement to be voted in the United States Congress.^{[citation needed]}

In his first speech as President, García said he would appoint a Finance Minister who was neither "an orthodox market liberal" nor a person "excessively in favour of state intervention in the economy". The position of Prime Minister was given to Jorge Del Castillo. According to the BBC, in private interviews García had stated his interest in a possible future trade agreement with Brazil and considers himself "an admirer" of Brazilian President Lula da Silva.^[12]

In press conferences with the foreign press, García acknowledged that the support Humala received in the election "could not be ignored". García, in a recognition of future domestic politics with a UPP controlled Congress, was quoted as saying "Mr. Humala is an important political figure, and a President should consult with different political factions".^[12] However, Humala said he wouldn't salute the winner personally, adding that "he and his party will constitute the principal opposition bloc, not to fight Mr. García, but to defend the interests of the State and watch the government".^[13]

Alan García at the White House.

President Chávez of Venezuela responded to García's comments on his show Aló Presidente by stating that it was García who owed him an apology saying "the only way relations between the two countries can be restored is if Peru's elected President [García] gives an explanation and offers an apology to the Venezuelan people. He started throwing stones". Chávez questioned the legitimacy of the election, citing 1.2 million invalid ballots and a margin of victory of 600,000 votes, although offered no evidence for his comments.^[14] García, attending an invitation to meet Brazilian president Lula da Silva, responded to Chávez: "accept your defeat in silence. Don't ask me to apologize for something arising from interference and remarks that are unacceptable under international law."^[15] Differences with Chávez were left behind after the two ended their controversy at the II South American Community of Nations Summit.^[16][17]

On 20 July 2006 García named as Finance Minister Luis Carranza, a former executive at Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria and Central Bank director and deputy finance chief from August 2004 to August 2005 in Alejandro Toledo's government. The appointment was welcomed by some detractors of García's fiscal policies during his first administration. But Mario Huamán Rivera, the President of Peru's largest trade union the Confederación General de Trabajadores del Perú (General Workers Confederation of Peru), has attacked the appointment stating that "it looks as though Alan García is not going to fulfil his promise to change economic policy".^[18][19]

On the day before his inauguration, García formally named his cabinet including former Secretary-General of the APRA party and re-elected Congressman Jorge del Castillo as Prime Minister, Luis Carranza as Minister of Finance and Economy, and José Antonio García Belaúnde as Foreign Affairs Minister.^[20] García was inaugurated as President of Peru on 28 July 2006.^[21]

During his campaign, García declared that he supported he death penalty for rapists of minors;^[22] he has repeated this stance while in office. He has even proposed a law on the matter, which would modify the Criminal Code.^[23] Although the issue seemed to be stalled, García has widened the range of his proposal for the death penalty, by including terrorists in the list of those who could receive it.^[24][25]

García faced his first major political defeat of his second term in office on 11 January 2007 when his proposal to introduce the death penalty as a punishment for captured Shining Path rebels was rejected by Congress in a vote of 49 to 26. García had promised to introduce the death penalty for Shining Path rebels during the 2006 Presidential election. Following the defeat of the proposal, García suggested a national referendum on the issue but a referendum is expected to be blocked by Congress. Legislators who voted against the bill stated that it would be a breach of the American Convention on Human Rights to which Peru is a signatory. Approximately 3000 supporters of the proposal marched in Lima holding up photos of victims of attacks by the Shining Path.^[26]

On 5 June 2009, García ordered Peruvian Police and military forces to stop Amazonian Indigenous protesters from blocking roads in the Bagua region. The natives had been demonstrating against the signing by Alan García of special decrees that allow foreign corporations to enter Indigenous lands for oil drilling, mining and logging. As a result of the protests, more than 100 native civilians^[27] and 14 policemen were killed^[28]. With several policemen, who had surrendered their weapons, being brutally slaughtered at "estacion 6". It has since been proved, however, that members of the main opposition (nationalist) party, were behind these protests.^[29] Eyewitnesses claimed the bodies of the murdered amazon Natives have been dumped into the river.^[30][31]

Foreign affairs[link]

García with President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev in Lima on 24 November 2008.

After being elected, in the months prior to his inauguration, García sought to heal the relationship with Chile, which was stressed due to the differences between the governments of Alejandro Toledo and Ricardo Lagos and severely impaired by the former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's extradition affair.^[32] García's intentions were well-received by Michelle Bachelet, President of Chile, as she and García met and struck some pre-agreements.^[33][34] These conversations eventually led to the final draft of a landmark economic agreement with Chile a month after García was sworn in.^[35][36]

On 9 November 2006, García signed 12 commercial agreements with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil,^[37][38] strengthening the relationship between the two countries. As part of the IIRSA program and continuing integration efforts -including the August 2006 negotiations between Petrobras and Petroperú-,^[39] these new agreements seek to further bilateral cooperation.^[40] García offered Peruvian hydropower to meet Brazil's growing energy needs, although further details were not disclosed.^[41]

García mended relations with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela on 9 December 2006 during the second South American Community of Nations summit in Cochabamba, Bolivia. García told the Peruvian broadcaster Radio Programas del Perú that "the two of us are well-mannered and cordial people, so any kind of argument, any previously made statements, remain a closed chapter" referring to disputes between the two leaders during the 2006 Peruvian presidential election where Chavez supported García's opponent Ollanta Humala.^[42]

Public image[link]

García returned in 2006 to the presidency of Peru on 28 July, sixteen years after his first, disastrous term in office ended.^[43]

During García's second administration, Peru was ranked as Latin America's third-best country for business on the 2008 Latin Business Index from the Latin Business Chronicle.^[44]

Published works[link]

García is the author of several books on the Peruvian reality and Latin America. Most of them may be found in the National Library of Peru. His published works include the following:

• 1988  A la inmensa mayoría: discursos
• 1989  El futuro diferente
• 1989  El desarme financiero: pueblo y deuda en América Latina
• 1990  La revolución regional
• 1991  La defensa de Alan García
• 1992  El nuevo totalitarismo
• 1994  El mundo de Machiavello
• 1997  La falsa modernidad
• 1997  Siete tesis erróneas del neoliberalismo en América Latina
• 1999  Mi Gobierno hizo la regionalización
• 2000  La década infame: deuda externa 1990–1999
• 2003  Modernidad y política en el siglo XXI: globalización con justicia social
• 2005  Sierra Exportadora - Empleo, Modernidad y Justicia en Los Andes

See also[link]

• 2008 Peru oil scandal
• 2009 Peruvian political crisis
• Peruvian prison massacres

References[link]

External links[link]

• Office of the President of the Republic of Peru official website
• (Spanish) APRA's official site
• Latin Business Chronicle, "Leader of the Year 2008: Alan García"^[when?]
• (Spanish) Extended biography by CIDOB Foundation
• Peru Election 2006 profile. The University of British Columbia
• "Exiled García back in Peru", BBC News Online, 28 January 2001
• cverdad.org (A brief report made by the Peruvian Commission of Truth involving Alan García)
• "Extract from article discussing García's 2006 election victory", 23 June 2006
• "Welcome to Washington, Mr. Peruvian President: Alan García Perez’s Regional Foreign Policy", Analysis by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. 5 October 2006.

v t e Presidents of Peru San Martín Luna Pizarro La Mar Bernardo de Tagle Riva Agüero Sucre Bernardo de Tagle Bolívar Santa Cruz Salazar y Baquíjano La Mar Gutiérrez de la Fuente Gamarra Luna Pizarro Orbegoso Bermúdez Salaverry Santa Cruz Gamarra Menéndez Torrico Vidal Figuerola Vivanco Nieto Castilla Elías Menéndez Figuerola Menéndez Castilla Echenique Castilla San Román Castilla P. Diez Canseco Pezet Prado Pezet P. Diez Canseco Prado P. Diez Canseco Balta Gutiérrez F. Diez Canseco Zevallos Pardo Prado Piérola García Calderón Montero Cáceres Iglesias Arenas Cáceres Morales Bermúdez Borgoño Cáceres Candamo Piérola Romaña Candamo S. Calderón Pardo y Barreda Leguía Billinghurst Benavides Pardo y Barreda Leguía Ponce Sánchez Cerro Elías Arias Jiménez Samanez Ocampo Sánchez Cerro Benavides Prado Ugarteche Bustamante y Rivero Odría Noriega Odría Prado Ugarteche Pérez Godoy Lindley Belaúnde Velasco Morales Bermúdez Belaúnde García Fujimori Paniagua Toledo García Humala

Alan Garner
Garner in 2011
Born	Alan Garner (1934-10-17)17 October 1934 Congleton, Cheshire, England
Occupation	Author, Folklorist
Nationality	English
Genres	Fantasy, low fantasy, folklore
Notable work(s)	The Weirdstone of Brisingamen The Moon of Gomrath Elidor The Owl Service
Spouse(s)	Griselda Garner

Alan Garner OBE (born 17 October 1934) is an English novelist who is best known for his work in children's fantasy and his retellings of traditional British folk tales. His work is firmly rooted in the landscape, history and folklore of his native county of Cheshire, North West England, being set in the region and making use of the native Cheshire dialect.

Born into a working class family in Congleton, Cheshire, Garner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edge, and spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as 'The Edge', where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the nearby village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, was published in 1960. A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore into its plot. It was followed by a sequel, The Moon of Gomrath (1963), although Garner never produced the envisioned third part of the trilogy. Instead he produced a string of further fantasy novels, Elidor (1965), The Owl Service (1967) and Red Shift (1973).

Turning away from fantasy as a genre, Garner produced The Stone Book Quartet (1979), a series of four short novellas detailing a day in the life of four generations of his family. He also published a series of British folk tales which he had rewritten in a series of books entitled Alan Garner's Fairy Tales of Gold (1979), Alan Garner's Book of British Fairy Tales (1984) and A Bag of Moonshine (1986). In his subsequent novels, Strandloper (1996) and Thursbitch (2003), he continued writing tales revolving around Cheshire, although without the fantasy elements which had characterised his earlier work.

Biography[link]

Early life: 1934-1956[link]

Garner was born in the front room of his grandmother's house in Congleton, Cheshire, on 17 October 1934.^[2] He grew up not far away, on Alderley Edge, a well-to-do rural Cheshire village that had effectively become a suburb of Manchester.^[2] Growing up in a "a rural working-class family",^[3] Garner's ancestry had been connected to Alderley Edge since at least the 16th century, with Alan tracing his lineage back to the death of William Garner in 1592.^[4] The Garner family had passed on "a genuine oral tradition", teaching their children the folk tales about The Edge, which included a description of a king and his army of knights that slept under it, guarded by a wizard,^[3] and in the mid 19th century, Alan's great-great grandfather Robert had carved the face of a bearded wizard onto the rock of a cliff next to a well that was known in local folklore as the Wizard's Well.^[5] Living in this rural environment, Robert Garner and his other relatives had all been craftsmen, with each successive generation trying to "improve on, or do something different from, the previous generation."^[6]

Alan's own grandfather, Joseph Garner, "could read, but didn't and so was virtually unlettered", but instead taught his grandson the various folk tales about The Edge,^[3] with Alan later remarking that as a result he was "aware of [the Edge's] magic" as a child, when he would often play there with his friends.^[7] The story of the king and the wizard living under the hill played an important part in the young Alan's life, becoming "deeply embedded in my psyche" and heavily influencing his later novels.^[3]

Garner faced several life-threatening childhood illnesses.^[2] He meanwhile went to a local village school, where he found that despite being praised for his intelligence, he was punished for speaking in his native Cheshire dialect.^[2] Moving on, he went on to attend Manchester Grammar School,^[2] before proceeding to study Classics at Magdalen College, Oxford.^{[citation needed]} Garner was the first member of his family to receive anything more than a basic education, although he noted that this resulted in him being removed from his "cultural background" and led to something of a schism with other members of his family, who "could not cope with me, and I could not cope with" them.^[3]

[edit] The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath: 1957-1964

In 1957, Garner purchased and began renovating Toad Hall at Blackden in Cheshire.

In 1957, Garner purchased Toad Hall, a Late Mediaeval building in Blackden, seven miles away from Alderley Edge. In the late 19th century the Hall had been divided into two agricultural labourers' cottages, but Garner obtained both for a total of £670, and proceeded to convert it back into a single home.^[8]

It was at Toad Hall that Garner set about writing his first novel, which would be titled The Weirdstone of Brisingamen: A Tale of Alderley. Set in Alderley Edge, it revolved around two children, Susan and Collin, who are sent to live in the area with their mother's old nurse maid, Bess, and her husband, Gowther Mossock. Setting about to explore the Edge, they discover a race of malevolent creatures, the svart alfar, who dwell in the Edge's abandoned mines and who seem intent on capturing them, until they are rescued by the wizard Cadellin who reveals that the forces of darkness are amassing at the Edge in search of the titular "weirdstone of Brisingamen". Whilst engaged in writing in his spare time, Garner attempted to gain employment as a teacher, but soon gave that up, believing that "I couldn't write and teach; the energies were too similar", and so began working as a general labourer for four years, remaining unemployed for much of that time.^[3]

Garner sent his debut novel to the publishing company Collins, where it was picked up by the company's head, Sir William Collins, who was on the look out for new fantasy novels following on from the recent commercial and critical success of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).^[9] Garner, who would go on to become a personal friend of Collins, would later relate that "Billy Collins saw a title with funny-looking words in it on the stockpile, and he decided to publish it."^[9] Following its release in 1960, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen proved to be a "resounding success... both critically and commercially", later being described as "a tour de force of the imagination, a novel that showed almost every writer who came afterwards what it was possible to achieve in novels ostensibly published for children."^[10]

With his first book published, Garner abandoned his work as a labourer and gained a job as a freelance television reporter, living a "hand to mouth" lifestyle on a "shoestring" budget.^[3] He also worked on a sequel to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, which would be known as The Moon of Gomrath.

The Moon of Gomrath also revolves around the adventures of Colin and Susan, with the latter being possessed by a malevolent creature called the Brollachan who has recently entered the world. With the help of the wizard Cadellin, the Brollachan is exorcised, but Susan's soul also leaves her body, being sent to another dimension, leading Colin to find a way to bring it back.

In a later interview given in 1989, Garner admitted that he had left scope for a third book following the adventures of Collin and Susan, envisioning a trilogy, but that he had intentionally decided not to write it, instead moving on to write something different.^[3] However Boneland, the conclusion to the sequence, will be published in August 2012.^[11]

[edit] Elidor, The Owl Service and Red Shift: 1964-1973

Set in contemporary Manchester, Elidor told the story of four children who enter into a broken down Victorian church, only to find a portal to the magical realm of Elidor. Here, they are entrusted by King Malebron to help rescue four treasures which have been stolen by the forces of evil who are attempting to take control of Elidor. Successfully doing so, the children return home to Manchester with the treasures, but are pursued by the evil forces who need them to seal their victory.

The Owl Service was set in Wales, and used as its basis a story in the Mediaeval Welsh epic, the Mabinogion.

Garner at his home in Blackden, 2011.

[edit] The Stone Book Quartet and Folkloric collections: 1974-1994

The Stone Book (which received the Phoenix Award in 1996) is poetic in style and inspiration. Garner pays particular attention to language, and strives to render the cadence of the Cheshire tongue in modern English. This he explains by the sense of anger he felt on reading "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight": the footnotes would not have been needed by his father. This and other aspects of his writing are the subject of Neil Philip's A Fine Anger, (Collins, 1981), which offers a detailed analysis of his work.

In a 1989 interview, Garner noted that whilst writing The Stone Book Quartet had been "exhausting", it had been "the most rewarding of everything" he'd done to date.^[3]

[edit] Strandloper, Thursbitch and Boneland: 1995-present

1996 saw the publication of Garner's novel Strandloper.

His collection of essays and public talks, The Voice That Thunders, contains much autobiographical material (including an account of his life with bipolar disorder), as well as critical reflection upon folklore and language, literature and education, the nature of myth and time. Garner is an accomplished public speaker.

Garner's next novel, Thursbitch, was published in 2003.

Garner's latest novel, Boneland, is set for release in 2012.

Literary style[link]

Although Garner's early work is often labelled as "children's literature", Garner himself rejects such a description, informing one interviewer that "I certainly have never written for children" but that instead he has always written purely for himself.^[3] Neil Philip, in his critical study of Garner's work (1981), commented that up till that point, "Everything Alan Garner has published has been published for children",^[12] although he went on to relate that "It may be that Garner's is a case" where the division between children's and adult's literature is "meaningless" and that his fiction is instead "enjoyed by a type of person, no matter what their age."^[13]

The English author and academic Charles Butler noted that Garner was attentive to the "geological, archaeological and cultural history of his settings, and careful to integrate his fiction with the physical reality beyond the page."^[14] As a part of this, Garner had included maps of Alderley Edge in both The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath.^[15] Garner has spent much time investigating the areas that he deals with in his books; writing in the Times Literary Supplement in 1968, Garner commented that in preparation for writing his book Elidor:

I had to read extensively textbooks on physics, Celtic symbolism, unicorns, medieval watermarks, megalithic archaeology; study the writings of Jung; brush up my Plato; visit Avebury, Silbury and Coventry Cathedral; spend a lot of time with demolition gangs on slum clearance sites; and listen to the whole of Britten's War Requiem nearly every day.^[16]

Recognition and legacy[link]

The Medicine House, an Early Modern building that was moved to Blackden by Garner.

In the fiftieth anniversary edition of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, published by HarperCollins in 2010, several notable British fantasy novelists praised Garner and his work. Susan Cooper related that "The power and range of Alan Garner's astounding talent has grown with every book he's written", whilst David Almond called him one of Britain's "greatest writers" whose works "really matter".^[17] Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, went further when he remarked that:

"Garner is indisputably the great originator, the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien, and in many respects better than Tolkien, because deeper and more truthful... Any country except Britain would have long ago recognised his importance, and celebrated it with postage stamps and statues and street-names. But that's the way with us: our greatest prophets go unnoticed by the politicians and the owners of media empires. I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration."^[18]

Another British fantasy author, Neil Gaiman, claimed that "Garner's fiction is something special" in that it was "smart and challenging, based in the here and the now, in which real English places emerged from the shadows of folklore, and in which people found themselves walking, living and battling their way through the dreams and patterns of myth."^[18] Praise also came from Nick Lake, the editorial director of HarperCollins Children's Books, who proclaimed that "Garner is, quite simply, one of the greatest and most influential writers this country has ever produced."^[19]

Awards[link]

He was appointed OBE for services to literature in the 2001 New Year's Honours list.

• 'The Owl Service' won the Guardian Award and the Carnegie Medal in 1968
• The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (before 1980)^{[clarification needed]}
• Artist Patrick James Lynch won the 1987 Mother Goose Award for his illustrative work on 'A Bag of Moonshine'.
• 'The Stone Book' received the Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association (USA) in 1996
• The 1981 film 'Images' won First Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival
• Karl Edward Wagner Award (British Fantasy Award, Special Award) won in 2003
• On 20 January 2011, the University of Warwick awarded him the degree of Doctor of Letters (honoris causa).^[20]

Television and radio adaptations[link]

• The Owl Service (1969), a British TV series transmitted by Granada Television based on Garner's novel of the same name.
• Elidor was read in installments on a BBC children's radio program in the early 1970s
• Red Shift (BBC, transmitted 17 January 1978); directed by John Mackenzie; part of the BBC's Play for Today series.
• To Kill a King (1980), part of the BBC series of plays on supernatural themes, Leap in the Dark: an atmospheric story about a writer overcoming depression and writer's block. The hero's home appears to be Garner's own house.
• Garner and Don Webb adapted Elidor into a children's television series for the BBC. The series consisted of six half-hour episodes starring Damian Zuk as Roland and Suzanne Shaw as Helen^[21]

Works[link]

Novels[link]

Alan Jackson
Jackson in April 2010
Background information
Birth name	Alan Eugene Jackson
Born	(1958-10-17) October 17, 1958 (age 53)
Origin	Newnan, Georgia USA
Genres	Country, Neotraditional country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Arista Nashville EMI Nashville/Alan's Country Records
Associated acts	Keith Stegall, George Strait, The Wrights, Zac Brown Band, Jeff Foxworthy, The Bellamy Brothers, George Jones
Website	www.alanjackson.com

Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista Nashville label. More than 50 of his singles have appeared on Billboard's list of the "Top 30 Country Songs". Of Jackson's entries, 35 were number-one hits, with 50 in the Top 10. He is the recipient of 2 Grammys, 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards and nominee of multiple other awards. Jackson is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Early life[link]

Jackson was born to Joseph Eugene Jackson and Ruth Musick in Newnan, Georgia, and has four older siblings. Jackson is of English descent.^[1][2] As a youth, Jackson listened primarily to gospel music. Otherwise he was not a major music fan. However, a friend of his introduced him to the music of Gene Watson, John Anderson and Hank Williams Jr. Jackson attended the local Elm Street Elementary and Newnan High School, starting a band after high school. After a time, he and his wife of six years, Denise Jackson, moved from Newnan to Nashville where Jackson hoped to pursue music full-time.^[3]

Jackson sang in church as a child. He, his father, mother, and four sisters lived in a small home. At one point, his bed was in the hallway for lack of room. His mother lives in the home to this day. His first job, at 12, was in a shoe store. He wrote his first song in 1983. He worked as a car salesman in his 20s.

Career[link]

This section requires expansion with: More info on each individual album, critical reception, etc. etc..

In Tennessee, Jackson got a job in The Nashville Network's mailroom.^[3] Denise connected him with Glen Campbell, who helped jumpstart his career.^[4] Jackson eventually signed with Arista.^[3] By 1989, he became the first signee to the newly-formed Arista Nashville branch of Arista Records.^[5]

Arista released Jackson's debut single, "Blue Blooded Woman", in late 1989. Although the song failed to reach top 40 on Hot Country Songs, he reached number three by early 1990 with "Here in the Real World".^[6] This song served as the title track to his debut album, Here in the Real World, which also included two more top five hits ("Wanted" and "Chasin' That Neon Rainbow") and his first number one, "I'd Love You All Over Again".^[6]

Don't Rock the Jukebox was the title of Jackson's second album. Released in 1991, it included four number-one singles: the title track, "Someday", "Dallas" and "Love's Got a Hold on You", and the number three "Midnight in Montgomery".^[6] Jackson also co-wrote several songs on Randy Travis' 1992 album High Lonesome.^[5]

A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'bout Love), his third album, accounted for the number one hits "She's Got the Rhythm (And I Got the Blues)" (which Travis co-wrote) and "Chattahoochee", plus the top five hits "Tonight I Climbed the Wall", "Mercury Blues" and "(Who Says) You Can't Have It All". "Chattahoochee" also won him the 1994 Country Music Association (CMA) awards for Single and Song of the Year.

In 1994 Jackson left his management company, Ten Ten Management, which had overseen his career up to that point, and switched to Gary Overton.^[7] His fourth album was titled Who I Am, and it contained four number one hits: a cover of the Eddie Cochran standard "Summertime Blues", followed by "Livin' on Love", "Gone Country" and "I Don't Even Know Your Name". An additional track from the album, a cover of Rodney Crowell's "Song for the Life", made number six. In late 1994, Clay Walker reached number one with "If I Could Make a Living", which Jackson co-wrote.^[8] Alan also appeared on an episode of Home Improvement, singing his hit song Mercury Blues in 1996, appearing on Tool Time to sing about his 1950 Mercury.

Mid-late 1990s[link]

"The Greatest Hits Collection" was released on October 24, 1995. The disc contained 17 hits, two newly-recorded songs ("I'll Try" and "Tall, Tall Trees"), and the song "Home" from "Here in the Real World" that had never been released as a single.^[9] These first two songs both made number one.

Everything I Love followed in 1996. Its first single was a cover of Tom T. Hall's "Little Bitty", which Jackson took to the top of the charts in late 1996. The album also included the number one hit "There Goes" and a number two cover of Charly McClain's 1980 single "Who's Cheatin' Who". The album's fifth single was "A House with No Curtains", which became his first release since 1989 to miss the top 10.^[6]

High Mileage was led off by the number four "I'll Go On Loving You". After it came the album's only number one hit, "Right on the Money", co-written by Phil Vassar.

With Jackson's release of Under the Influence in 1999, he took the double risk on an album of covers of country classics while retaining a traditional sound when a rock- and pop-tinged sound dominated country radio.^[10]

When the Country Music Association (CMA) asked George Jones to trim his act to 90 seconds for the 1999 CMA awards, Jones decided to boycott the event. In solidarity, Jackson interrupted his own song and launched into Jones's song "Choices" and then walked offstage.^[11]

2000s-present[link]

Jackson performing in 2002

After country music changed toward pop music in the 2000s, he and George Strait criticized the state of country music on the song "Murder on Music Row". The song sparked debate in the country music community about whether or not "traditional" country music was actually dead or not.^[12] Despite the fact that the song was not officially released as a single, it became the highest-charting nonseasonal album cut (not available in any retail single configuration or released as a promotional single to radio during a chart run) to appear on Hot Country Singles & Tracks in the Broadcast Data Systems era, beating the record previously held by Garth Brooks' "Belleau Wood." The duo were invited to open the 2000 Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMAs) with a performance of the tune.^[13] Rolling Stone commented on Jackson's style remarking, "If Garth and Shania have raised the bar for country concerts with Kiss-style production and endless costume changes, then Alan Jackson is doing his best to return the bar to a more human level."^[14] After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Jackson released "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" as a tribute to those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The song became a hit single and briefly propelled him into the mainstream spotlight.