Note: The novel was written and marketed for children, but some critics questioned that. It was adapted by Garner and the BBC as a television film, broadcast 1978-01-17, "screened at peak viewing time with no mention of the fact that it was originally published as a children's novel." --from Brian Lee, "Children's Books Grow Up", The Contemporary Review 1978-08-01 pp. 85-88 (quoted in full below) Publisher advertisement, The Observer 1973-10-07 p40, quotes a Sunday Times review by Margery Fisher, "... it would be equally insulting to children and to Alan Garner to tread RED SHIFT as anything but a superbly exciting piece of literature."

Synopsis: Quoting that 1978 review article by Brian Lee:   Red Shift [after The Owl Service] was again about the relationship between two adolescents, but interwoven in their love story were two other strands: one about a group of Roman legionaires 'going tribal' among warring factions of the British (the parallel and the brutal language are obviously those of the Americans among the Viet Cong and the Viet Minh); the other strand is about the massacre of a village on the Welsh border during the Civil War. ... view full Synopsis