DIANA WYNNE JONES was born in August 1934 in London, where she had a chaotic and unsettled childhood against the background of World War II. The family moved around a lot, finally settling in rural Essex. As children, Diana and her two sisters were deprived of a good, steady supply of books by a father, 'who could beat Scrooge in a meanness contest'. So, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable quest for good books to read, she decided that she would have to write them herself.
"However, I was extremely dyslexic," says Diana, "so when I told my parents I wanted to be a writer, they just laughed." In spite of this, between the ages of twelve and fourteen, the young writer completed two epic tales scrawled in a total of twenty copy books. This taught her from an early age the invaluable lesson of how to finish a book.Her higher education began in 1953 when she went up to St Anne's College Oxford, and attended lectures by CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein. It was here she met her husband, John A Burrow, who is Professor of English at Bristol University. They married in 1956 and have three sons.
She has written both children's books and plays (mostly performed at the London Arts Theatre) and her first book was published in 1973. Since then she has written over 40 books. Her enviably fertile mind has allowed her to write prolifically, even when her three boys were small, and quite a handful! When writing, she is totally absorbed in the book and on one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, her sons returned from school ravenous to find she had shoved a pair of muddy shoes in the oven for their tea! She says, "I am an inspirational writer. I forget meals and write with ever-increasing speed."
Diana Wynne Jones first conjured up the enigmatic and embroidered dressing-gowned enchanter Chrestomanci in 1977. The adventures in his magical worlds - for, as every budding sorcerer knows - there are many series of parallel worlds - continue to enthral readers all over the world.
Charmed Life, the first book in the Chrestomanci series, won the 1977 Guardian Award for Children's Books. Diana was runner-up for the Children's Book Award in 1981, and was twice runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. In 1999, she won two major fantasy awards: the children's section of the Mythopeic Award in the USA, and the Karl Edward Wagner Award in the UK - which is awarded by the British Fantasy Society to individuals or organizations who have made a significant impact on fantasy. JK Rowling was runner-up on both occasions.
Meeting Diana you wouldn't be surprised to find she has second sight. You'd think it quite natural that she should be a writer of fantasy, a connoisseur of witchcraft, a creator of parallel worlds. For her, magic isn't something that floats about unrooted in human nature. “Things we are accustomed to regard as myth or fairy story are very much present in people's lives.” She says, “Nice people behave like wicked stepmothers. Every day.”

Howl's Moving Castle

Sophie Hatter, the eldest of three daughters, lives in the smallish town of Market Chipping with her step-mother and her two sisters. After the girls' father dies, Fanny, the step-mother, is unable to raise three daughters on a hatmakers salary. She finds good apprenticeships for Sophie's two younger sisters and keeps Sophie to help in the hat shop. The sisters, Lettie and Martha, promptly switch places, since Lettie would rather be a witch, and Martha would rather be a baker. Discontented with her life, Sophie is nonetheless a marvellous hatmaker, whose hats seem to bestow upon their wearers exactly the things Sophie wishes when she's making them.

In the meantime, a castle has taken up residence on the outskirts of town. It moves willy-nilly from one place to another and is said to be inhabited by a wizard who "was known to amuse himself by collecting young girls and sucking the souls from them. Or some people said he ate their hearts.". Young girls are advised to never go out alone lest they be captured and treated to all manner of horrors.

Then, Sophie enrages the witch of the west with her incredible skill at making hats. The witch descends upon Sophie and casts a curse which turns Sophie into an old woman. Worse, Sophie is cursed to be physically unable to tell anybody she's under a curse. The horror of the curse breaks Sophie from her appalling state of mousy discontent. She can't bear to think of her family seeing her in this state, and so runs away.

Old and feeble, she struggles even in the simple act of walking away from town. By the time evening descends, she has only covered a short distance, and she knows she won't be able to travel as far away as another village. In this state, she comes upon the moving castle. Age gives her the courage she lacked as a hatmakers' apprentice, and she not only forces her way into the castle, but also invites herself to stay for the night. The wizard himself isn't home, but his apprentice, Michael, is quite unable to deal with this irascible old woman. Sophie falls asleep in front of the fire, thinking how the flames quite resemble a face.

When she wakens, she tosses a log on the fire, and realises that the flames more than resemble a face, they ARE a face. The fire in this castle is actually controlled by a fire demon named Calcifer. Like Sophie, Calcifer is cursed, and they make a pact, each to discover the nature of the other's curse and break it. This, of course, requires Sophie to find a pretext for staying at the castle.

She declares herself housekeeper and by the time the wizard Howl arrives, he finds her furiously cleaning cobwebs out of dusty corners and scrubbing the dust into oblivion. He doesn't invite her to stay, but then, he doesn't exactly throw her out, either, leaving her free to find out exactly how Calcifer is bound to the castle.

Want to know more...? Then run right out and either buy this absolutely enchanting book or go to your local library and borrow it. You won't be sorry, we promise you!