The deftness of Garner's touch should not disguise the range of issues he engages. From the rise of mass production to the stupendous violence of modern warfare, many leading concerns of the past century and a half are reflected in the lives of the Stone Book family. For example, the concepts of class conflict, religious arrogance, and thoughtless destruction of the past come together when the rector demolishes the Allman's cottage in Granny Reardun. The rector carries out this destruction merely because he wants the stone from the cottage to wall his wife's garden.

The books deal less sensitively with women. Regrettably, Garner creates a strong character in Mary, the protagonist of The Stone Book, only to let her life fade into uncertainty. When she reappears in Granny Reardun she is merely a shadowy figure on the fringes of the relationship between Joseph and Old Robert...