Robert MacFarlane writes in the Guardian about Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising. He is part of a team bringing a dramatisation of the book to the BBC World Service this Christmas.

He mentions the Twitter reading group that he ran 5 years ago with Julia Bird, which I remember. It was fun to discover so many others for whom the book holds a special place in their imagination.

I read it in my early teens. I recall getting it out of our local library. The rural wintery setting totally resonated with me and the folklore tapped into my own fascination with the idea of the supernatural and nature.

Growing up in the south of the UK we had snow nearly every winter, usually just for a few days. This made it an Event and is forever synonymous for me with The Dark is Rising.

As an aside, from the ’90s onward the incidence of snow has really dropped off. Anecdotal signs of climate change.

I look forward to listening to the new audio drama.