Diana Wynne Jones died last week, and, rereading her novels, I’m reminded that she is one of the great under-rated authors of children’s books. Try Howl’s Moving Castle if you are new to her work. The New York Times captures the power of her writing and reminds us how her clever, curious protagonists navigate worlds of hyperdysfunctionality.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/books/diana-wynne-jones-childrens-fantasy-author-dies-at-76.html?scp=1&sq=diana%20wynne%20jones&st=cse
Diana Wynne Jones has a moving account of her childhood and of what led her to become a writer on her website.
http://www.leemac.freeserve.co.uk/autobiog.htm
She tells us: “I get unhappy if I don’t write. Each book is an experiment, an attempt to write the ideal book, the book my children would like, the book I didn’t have as a child myself. I have still not, after twenty-odd books, written that book. But I keep trying. Nor do I manage to live a quiet life. I keep undertaking things, like visiting schools and teaching courses as a writer, or learning the cello, or doing amateur theatricals, or rashly agreeing to do all the cooking for Richard’s wedding in 1984. Every one of those things has led to comic disasters-except the wedding: that was perfect.” And so were her books.