Diana Wynne Jones rest in peace
She died a few days ago, but it's taken me a little while to collect thoughts. She had reached the age of 77, and had been ill for some time, but even so it came as a shock.
I suppose I feel particularly saddened because her writing was very important to me when I was growing up. I think I first came across her with Wilkins' Tooth in about 1975, fell in love straight away, and from then on pretty much read them as they came out.
Apart from the tremendous invention and vividity of her writing, she struck a particular chord with me (and I suspect this is true of many of her readers) because of the way she handles her often powerless, often friendless protagonists. Of course, the idea of child protagonists needing to find their place in the world is classic in children's literature. But Diana was unusual in the unsentimentality, even ruthlessness, with which she displayed the forces of adversity. I learned much later that this came from her own unpleasant childhood (more or less portrayed in Time of the Ghost), but at the time, I just felt that she had a great understanding of what would strike chords with my own unhappiness. So her writing was emotionally satisfying in a way that few other authors (Jacqueline Wilson is the only other who springs to mind) are able, or maybe dare, to manage.
As I got older I continued reading her books, now most admiring of her skillful plotting. Charmed Life is perhaps my favourite, because of the watch-mechanism-like neatness of the way its different plot elements fit together and resolve. I also greatly admire the vision and scope of the Dalemark books, which I think match Alan Garner in bringing the power of myth to life: and again, tremendously clever in structure. And I value her fierce emphasis on the need to think for oneself: this is perhaps the most important 'message' of her writing. Auhtority is not to be accepted unquestioningly: by adults any more than by children.
I only met her once, in about 1998, but that was great fun and she was just how I imagined: like a kindly auntie of whose unpredictability and forthrightness one may remain slightly wary. I hope that, like her great influence E. Nesbit, her works live on for the children of many future generations.
I suppose I feel particularly saddened because her writing was very important to me when I was growing up. I think I first came across her with Wilkins' Tooth in about 1975, fell in love straight away, and from then on pretty much read them as they came out.
Apart from the tremendous invention and vividity of her writing, she struck a particular chord with me (and I suspect this is true of many of her readers) because of the way she handles her often powerless, often friendless protagonists. Of course, the idea of child protagonists needing to find their place in the world is classic in children's literature. But Diana was unusual in the unsentimentality, even ruthlessness, with which she displayed the forces of adversity. I learned much later that this came from her own unpleasant childhood (more or less portrayed in Time of the Ghost), but at the time, I just felt that she had a great understanding of what would strike chords with my own unhappiness. So her writing was emotionally satisfying in a way that few other authors (Jacqueline Wilson is the only other who springs to mind) are able, or maybe dare, to manage.
As I got older I continued reading her books, now most admiring of her skillful plotting. Charmed Life is perhaps my favourite, because of the watch-mechanism-like neatness of the way its different plot elements fit together and resolve. I also greatly admire the vision and scope of the Dalemark books, which I think match Alan Garner in bringing the power of myth to life: and again, tremendously clever in structure. And I value her fierce emphasis on the need to think for oneself: this is perhaps the most important 'message' of her writing. Auhtority is not to be accepted unquestioningly: by adults any more than by children.
I only met her once, in about 1998, but that was great fun and she was just how I imagined: like a kindly auntie of whose unpredictability and forthrightness one may remain slightly wary. I hope that, like her great influence E. Nesbit, her works live on for the children of many future generations.