The Dark is Rising: Susan Cooper, Natalie Haynes, Simon McBurney and Robert MacFarlane.
Channel: British Library
Date: 2023-12-12

This event took place at the British Library on Friday 27 October 2023 with the original title 'The Dark is Rising and other stories: Susan Cooper and Natalie Haynes in conversation'.

Are you afraid of the Dark? 

In a colossus of a keynote event, the British Library’s Fantasy season opens with two hugely influential writers in discussion on the genre. Susan Cooper, best known for The Dark is Rising series, talks to Natalie Haynes, aka the ‘rock-star mythologist’. 

Also exploring the acclaimed Complicité BBC radio adaptation of the work, with its creators Simon McBurney and Robert MacFarlane.   

This event accompanies the British Library exhibition Fantasy: Realms of Imagination (add URL to exhibition page) 27 October – 25 February supported by Wayland Games and Unwin Charitable Trust. 

Susan Cooper is author of the classic five-book sequence The Dark is Rising, marking its 50th anniversary this year and the winner of a Newbery Medal, a Newbery Honor Award, and two Carnegie Honor Awards. Born in England, she was a reporter for the Sunday Times before moving to the US. Her writing includes books for children and adults, a Broadway play, films, and Emmy-nominated screenplays. In 2012, Susan was given the Margaret A. Edwards Award and in 2013 she received the World Fantasy Award for life achievement. Her most recent titles are The Word Pirates and The Shortest Day. Susan lives and writes in Marshfield, Massachusetts. 

Natalie Haynes is the author of The Amber Fury, shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize; The Children of Jocasta; A Thousand Ships (shortlisted for the Women’s Prize), and Stone Blind, a re-telling of the Medusa story (long listed for the Women’s Prize). Her non-fiction works are The Ancient Guide to Modern Life and Pandora’s Jar. She has written and presented seven series of the BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for The Classics. In 2015, she was awarded the Classical Association Prize for her work in bringing Classics to a wider audience. In her newest work, Divine Might Natalie returns to the world of Greek myth, examining the role of the goddesses. 

Simon McBurney is an actor, playwright, and director who founded Théâtre de Complicité. He has had roles in the films The Manchurian Candidate, Friends with Money, The Last King of Scotland, The Golden Compass, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. He played Cecil the choirmaster in BBC's The Vicar of Dibley. 

Robert Macfarlane is a writer and Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is best known for his books on landscape, nature, place, people and language, which include The Old Ways (2012), Landmarks (2015), The Lost Words (2017) and Underland (2019). In 2017 he received The E. M. Forster Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.