Born in Congleton, Garner grew up around the nearby town of Alderley Edge, and spent much of his youth in the wooded area known locally as "The Edge", where he gained an early interest in the folklore of the region. Studying at Manchester Grammar School and then briefly at Oxford University, in 1957 he moved to the village of Blackden, where he bought and renovated an Early Modern Period (circa 1590) building known as Toad Hall. His first novel, "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen", was published in 1960. A children's fantasy novel set on the Edge, it incorporated elements of local folklore in its plot and characters. Garner completed a sequel, "The Moon of Gomrath" (1963), but left the third book of the trilogy unfinished. Instead he wrote several fantasy novels, "Elidor" (1965), "The Owl Service" (1967) and "Red Shift" (1973).