The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper
This quartet of marvellous tales was my favourite reading as a boy.

Being the son of a public schoolteacher meant long holidays with my parents - but invariably within the UK (money was not in ready supply), so these beautiful and exciting yarns set in locations all over Britain were enormously easy to imagine myself in.

Cornwall, rural Wales - chances are I was holed up in one of the places featured in a rented house (in the rain)and was utterly thrilled by the adventures - full of Britsh folklore and Arthurian legend. In short, just my kind of thing.

I am told some insufferable simpleton made a film of them recently with an American in the main role. Now I'm actually a big fan of Americans, unfashionable as that may be, but these are quintessentially English works and that is SACRILIEGE, I tell you, SACRILIEGE!!!
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:33, 6 replies)

I had a long discussion with some friends about this
I argued that there wasn't anything wrong with using an American per se (after all, the Old Ones are supposed to be everywhere), and I could see how it was tempting to try to put some distance between this book and all the other Great British Children's Fantasy Novels currently being put to celluloid, particularly HP (boy discovers he has magic powers, is initiated by kindly old wizard, sent on quest etc etc). It could have been fine.

Apparently it wasn't.
( flatfrog Staring vacantly into space, Mon 19 May 2008, 13:50, closed)

technically I s'pose you're right
however in my mind they're so linked to my own middle class 70s/early 80s English
childhood that to me the thought of an American protagonist is anathema.

Mind you so is the Hobbit - not set in 70s England, to my knowledge. My grandmother was taught by Tolkein, fact fans.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 19 May 2008, 14:18, closed)

another Tolkien link, albeit not as direct
I used to live next door to Tolkien's nephew.

He was an arse.

you heard it here first.

Roald Dahl, on the other hand, who lived a couple of miles away was a very nice chap indeed. Always happy to give a friendly wave.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 19 May 2008, 14:36, closed)

Tolkein
my brother used to know his (I think) granddaughter who was a reet old crusty and died of a herion overdose.

Niiiice....
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 19 May 2008, 14:43, closed)

Yes!
Great books! I read these when I was about 11 or 12. I remember I spent a whole summer slowly working my way through them and being absolutely captivated. Would love to read them again.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Mon 19 May 2008, 16:27, closed)

The Dark is Rising
I re-read these a couple of years ago - they are fantastic!
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Mon 19 May 2008, 18:39, closed)