The Dark is Rising

Mr Hunter recommends:

The Old man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
The Animals of Farthing Wood – Colin Dann

Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
The Dark is Rising – Susan Hill

The Dark is Rising

On Midwinter's Eve, the night before his eleventh birthday, Will Stanton, seventh son of a seventh son, finds his world suddenly become ominous: Animals are afraid of him; the radio gives out raucous shrieks in his presence; and the weather turns unnaturally cold and wild. Even a neighbour's birthday gift - a flat iron circle quartered by a cross - seems somewhat enigmatic. Early on his birthday morning, Will awakes to find himself centuries back in time and discovers that he is actually the last of the 'Old Ones', a mystical company whose mission has always been to keep the forces of the Dark at bay. For the highest purpose - to complete the circle of Old Ones devoted to the conflict between the Light and Dark - Will has been born with a great gift of power; and he must now undertake the heroic quest to find and to join together the six Signs of the Light - signs of wood, bronze, iron, water, fire stone - for "the Dark is Rising."