Greenwitch (by Susan Cooper)

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I am glad I finally decided to read - or perhaps re-read - Susan Cooper’s ‘Dark is Rising’ series. I’ve just finished ‘Greenwitch’, the third in the series. I think I probably read it when we first acquired it, twenty or so years ago, but I hadn’t remembered the story at all.

The book follows on nicely from both the earlier books in the series. The first one, ‘Over Sea, Under Stone’, introduced the Drew children: Simon, Jane and Barney. In that book they discovered an ancient cup or grail, helped and advised by their Great Uncle Merry. The second book, 'The Dark is Rising', introduces the Stanton family, and particularly Will, a boy of eleven who learns that he is an ‘Old One’, someone who fights for the Light against the powers of darkness. Great Uncle Merry appears in that book as, simply, Merriman.

In ‘Greenwitch’, the four children meet, although the Drew children have no idea, at first, that Will is connected with Merriman and that he is far more than he appears. The grail has been stolen, and they go down to Cornwall to stay with their great uncle. Will is staying in the next-door house with his aunt and uncle.

Fairly early in the story, Jane is privileged to watch the building of the ‘greenwitch’, an ancient custom which the village women do all night while their menfolk are out sailing. When they have built this large structure out of branches and leaves, they all make wishes. Jane feels that there is something powerful about the greenwitch, although most of the women just think it’s a silly tradition.

The writing is excellent, well-paced and with some dramatic descriptions. There’s a particularly unpleasant character who becomes gradually nastier as the book progresses, but unlike in the first one it was clear to me who could be trusted and who could not.

It’s not a long book, but quite exciting in places. Naturally the Light is going to defeat the dark eventually - it’s a children’s or young teenage book, after all, and there are two more in the series - but I found myself feeling tense more than once as yet more danger appears.

There’s a strong element of fantasy in this book, albeit set firmly in the real world. Will, Merriman and other people of the Light have unusual abilities, some of them quite startling. There are also several scenes where dreams and reality are interposed on each other and it’s not certain what is real and what is not. The whole idea of the greenwitch - with a personality, and role is new in this book, and the concept of ‘wild’ magic, subject neither to dark nor Light.

I enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to anyone over the age of about ten. Although it could stand alone, it’s definitely better, in my view, to read it in sequence after the first two in the series.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's Book Reviews