A confession:
I would have never read the Silver Brumby series were it not for the AMAZING cartoon version which hit the BBC a fair few years ago. I wouldn’t have come anywhere near Alan Garner (Lord, smite me down now) were it not for the BBC adaptation of Elidor. I’ll admit a lot of my meandering towards the book was precipitated by the fact that Elidor featured a unicorn in the actual show and the most gorgeous Welsh Cob in the opening credits. Seriously, give me a gorgeous horse or a unicorn (or a dance routine but that’s a segue I’ll not take right now!) and I’ll pretty much watch anything. I am legend in my family for going “Phwoar” when Shadowfax came on screen in Lord of the Rings.
I really don’t mind the routes that people take towards a text. The important thing is that they get there eventually. I’d not have come anywhere near graphic novels were it not for Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So yeah, I can’t get on my high horse, and preach the overarching dominance of the book. What I can preach is that each version of the text complements and broadens your experience of the other. Plus, it’s just kinda cool to read the story and make your own film … you can see how it differs to the thing you just watched – and find out the bits that they missed.
The key thing to remember is that if you love the world in one medium, there’s no reason to say you won’t love it in the other. And that’s good enough for me.
Daisy May Johnson 