Would anyone like to enthuse/reminisce about Diana Wynne Jones with me?

[SarahAndQuack]

I've just curled up with 'A Tale of Time City' and am remember how much I loved all her books when I was little. I really enjoy how as an adult they still 'work'. I especially like all the little in-jokes that you don't necessarily pick up on as a child.

Anyone else? Do you have a favourite?

I think Fire & Hemlock is my favourite. I've just re-read the Dalemark Quarted though and I do love The Spellcoats. Power of Three is another great one, and Witch Week - so much fantastic stuff!!

Did you know that she was great friends with Neil Gaiman? I think his book The Ocean At The End of the Lane is very reminiscent of her work.

Neil Gaiman on DWJ

I absolutely loved her - but I never 'got' The Dalemark Quartet. I've still got all my books, and I think that I only read that once. I might give it another go, SarahAndQuack if you think it was good - my favourites were Fire and Hemlock, Howl - and Deep Secret. I loved the weird Fantasy Writers' Conference Hotel!

Also - how about Black Maria?

(Also loved Susan Cooper and Alan Garner. Joan Aiken anyone?)

Marking my place. I love them all. She really knew how to write cats too.

Eight Days of Luke! Another one that I wonder if it inspired Mr Gaiman?

The Time of the Ghost - seriously creepy, and apparently partly based on her & her sisters growing up.

I love Joan Aiken. Midnight is a Place is my favourite, but I'd love to go back and re-read all her books too.

Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourite books and I re-read it every few years, although I now find the dynamic between Polly and Tom a lot less romantic (and a lot creepier) than I did when I was younger.

@sleepyhead, thanks for that link. It made me feel a bit teary. I remember when she died. I was studying and reading a lot of the things that she's drawing on for her books, and I saw that she was ill and I wrote to her, saying thanks. I don't think I've felt that sad someone I didn't know had died before.

@blessyour - oh, do try it again! They are all very different books in the Quartet. I started with The Spellcoats, which I love but which I think is heavy going. Cart and Cwidder is more like Howl IMO. The dad in it is recognisably a bit of Howl and a bit of the dad in Archer's Goon, I think.

She was so good at family relationships, wasn't she? I love the way she could write families who all loved each other and weren't dramatically gritty or broken, but who still weren't perfect.

Ooh yes! Midnight is a Place! Fantastic title, and I still well up at '"Dont' die!" But he did die.'

Does anyone else also know Joan Aiken's collections for younger children? Necklace of Raindrops and A Kingdom Under the Sea? They are wonderful and come with brilliant illustrations.

And YY, nothing, I have to agree it is definitely creepy. No two ways about it.

DWJ was incredibly astute at describing her protagonists' emotions in a completely unsentimental way. I can't find the quote, but I remember either her or another author describing her daughter as saying "I didn't know how I was feeling until I read that" to describe the sort of recognition you get when you read something that suddenly makes something apparent to you that you always sort of knew but could never quite see clearly before.

I love her! the Chrestomanci series is amazing as is that one about Sirius the Dog Star born into the body of a dog. My all time favourite is the Time if the Ghost. There was also that one which had the reoccurring theme of the Hope and Anchor. Guy was travelling between worlds trying to find his way home but when he did 100 years had passed. It was so sad!

I never liked Fire and Hemlock tho. Maybe I read it when I was too young and didn’t get it. I wonder if I’d be too old to enjoy it now iyswim.

Yes! The emotions - she describes shame (I think in Fire & Hemlock actually) as a sort of bleaching out which perfectly describes the feeling (so perfectly, that I can't actually think of any other words)

Efferlunt, that was Homeward Bounders. Yes, it was so sad when he realised he was "home" but everything that actually made it home was long gone .

Love Love love her and miss her! All her books are wonderful but top favourites are:

Howl's Moving Castle
House Of Many Ways (Adore Twinkle;)
Conrad's Fate
Dark Lord Of Derkhelm (Brilliant idea for a story!)
Witch Week
Enchanted Glass

Enchanted Glass and Conrad's Fate are comfort reads for me. If life is crap or I can't sleep I put on the audible version. Bliss!

I had such a crush on chrestomanci. Still do

I first read Fire and Hemlock when I was about ten. I loved it, but didn’t fully understand it. I read it loads of times over the next few years and understood it better, but perhaps not completely. I agree that the relationship between Polly and Tom seems creepy now.

I never liked Polly’s awful mum, but I can now see that she really was incredibly selfish and neglectful, and Polly’s dad wasn’t much better.

Id forgotten about the Dalemark books! They were amazing!

Nine lives of Christopher Chant was good. I loved The Magicians of Caprona.

I never understood why she wasn't more popular. A million times better than JK Rowling.

When I was about 12 my class had a supply teacher who read 8 Days of Luke to us. After that, I absolutely devoured all DWJ books I could find. A few years ago I found an older copy of Charmed Life in the library sale and have since got about 4 physical books and lots more e-books. Charmed Life, Howl's Moving Castle and the Dark Lord of Derkholm are my favourites. I got so cross when Harry Potter first became a thing, with people saying that they were the first books to really involve children and magic.

Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourite books ever. I've been reading it for around 30 years.

I loved Fire and Hemlock - but when I read it as an adult it definitely seemed to be a grooming scenario.

I think my favourite was Witch Week. Definitely a twist on the normal boarding school story.

I love all her books and have read Charmed Life, Magicians of Caprona and Christopher Chant to DS7 who loved them.

I also have a wonderful book called Reflections which is a collection of her essays and talks - I can't recommend it enough, it has so much analysis of her own writing and her background and philosophy which made me want to go back and reread everything again with fresh eyes. Can't recommend it enough!

I loved her so much - her adult books are also great for those missing her children’s books (Dark Lord of Derkholm + the sequel Year of the Griffin, Deep Secret, the Merlin Conspiracy). I loved Hexwood the best.

I love Deep Secret and the Merlin Conspiracy, particularly the first. The magic and world-crossing taking place during an anarchic fantasy convention in a hotel is one of my favourite things!

I love DWJ. Such an imagination and so good about people. Very difficult to choose my favourite, but probably Fire and Hemlock, Time of the Ghost and 9 Lives of Christopher Chant. Throgmorten is my all time favourite fictional cat. I don’t see creepiness in the friendship ( and it is friendship at the start) between Polly and Tom. He is actually much younger at the funeral than Polly realises. Laurel likes them young, remember. ( Now that is creepy).

And now I'm reading Fire and Hemlock. Again.

The Merlin Conspiracy is definitely my favourite of her later books. Susan Cooper is great too. I like Joan Aiken, though I prefer her short story collections to her full length books on the whole. With the exception of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, which is wonderful.