Thursbitch

First edition cover
Author	Alan Garner
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy novel
Publisher	The Harvill Press
Publication date	October 2003
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	160 p. (hardback edition)
ISBN	1-84343-087-8 (hardback edition)
OCLC	52622302
Dewey Decimal	823/.914 22
LC Class	PR6057.A66 T49 2003

Thursbitch is a novel by English writer Alan Garner, named after the valley in the Pennines of England where the action occurs (also listed in the 1841 OS map as "Thursbatch"). It was published in 2003.

Plot

Set both in the 18th century and the present day, the novel centres on the mystery of an inscription on an extant engraved wayside stone tablet about a death from exposure.

Major themes

The book features shamanic use of the fly agaric mushroom^[1] and a piece of Derbyshire Blue John as plot elements.

Literary significance and criticism

The book is seen by critics^[who?] of Garner's work as a continuation of styles and structures first used in Red Shift (1973) and Strandloper (1996).