Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Where Shall We Run To?

  • A Memoir
  • By: Alan Garner
  • Narrated by: Robert Powell
  • Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (25 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Where Shall We Run To? cover art

Where Shall We Run To?

By: Alan Garner
Narrated by: Robert Powell
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £9.99

Buy Now for £9.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Weirdstone of Brisingamen cover art
The Owl Service cover art
The Coward's Tale cover art
Something Fresh cover art
The Road Back Home cover art
Pennies for Hitler cover art
The Hurley Maker's Son cover art
Two Cows and a Van Full of Smoke cover art
The Wacky Man cover art
Obasan cover art
Grace Williams Says It Loud cover art
The Eye of the Sheep cover art
Owls Do Cry cover art
God's Own Country cover art
This Is Not About Me cover art
The Flight of the Maidens cover art

Summary

A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR

From one of our greatest living writers, comes a remarkable memoir of a forgotten England.

'The war went. We sang in the playground, "Bikini lagoon, an atom bomb’s boom, and two big explosions." David’s father came back from Burma and didn’t eat rice. Twiggy taught by reciting “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and the thirteen times table. Twiggy was fat and short and he shouted, and his neck was as wide as his head. He was a bully, though he didn’t take any notice of me.’

In Where Shall We Run To?, Alan Garner remembers his early childhood in the Cheshire village of Alderley Edge: life at the village school as ‘a sissy and a mardy-arse'; pushing his friend Harold into a clump of nettles to test the truth of dock leaves; his father joining the army to guard the family against Hitler; the coming of the Yanks, with their comics and sweets and chewing gum. From one of our greatest living writers, it is a remarkable and evocative memoir of a vanished England.

©2018 Alan Garner (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

"Alan Garner is indisputably the great originator, the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien, and in many respects better than Tolkien, because his work is deeper and more truthful...I salute him with the most heartfelt respect and admiration." (Philip Pullman)

"Alan Garner’s fiction is something special." (Neil Gaiman) 

"He deploys short, accurate words better than anyone else writing in English today, and he makes it look simple." (The Times

What listeners say about Where Shall We Run To?

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Living history

Very much enjoyed a walk in the
Past.beautifully written, wonderfully read
Would definitely recommend a read of listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

enchanting tale of an old fashioned childhood

As I love Alan Garner's amazing books, having read them as a child and rediscovering them recently... I thought it would be nice to hear about his childhood. Hearing about the things that influenced and shaped his life and ultimately his amazing stories!
It didn't disappoint. I found it fascinating and charming, especially when referring to his escapades with friends, the school teachers who influenced him, the bullies he and his pals tried to avoid and the evacuees with their shaved heads patched with gentian violet! The wonderful family characters, some who had obviously lived in the area for generations and had literally helped shape the landscape... must've given him an absolute wealth of descriptions to work on! Best of all...for me.. is where he describes the area , mentioning places where he spent his childhood and where my favourite book is set! Lovely account of a childhood from times gone by.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Stunning and beutiful. A must listen.

Would recomend this especially if you have heard his books. Both touching and funny. Great!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!