

Neil Gaiman called her ‘the best writer of Magic there is’. Jones’s numerous awards include the Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction, two Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards and a Life Achievement Award at the World Fantasy Convention 2007. It broke all box-office records in Japan at the time and was nominated for an Oscar.

In 2004 Howl’s Moving Castle was made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli, Japan. Among Jones’s best-loved books are the Chrestomanci series and Howl’s Moving Castle and its two sequels. Written when Diana Wynne Jones was in her fifties, it turns many of the classic fairy tale elements on their heads. Her magical adventures have enthralled children and adults ever since. She never ceased writing, and from 1973 onwards published many titles, which have been released worldwide in 30 languages. She and her two sisters were deprived of books but, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable appetite for stories, Jones wrote them herself to read to her sisters. Her family moved frequently, finally settling in rural Essex. Diana Wynne Jones had an unsettled childhood against the background of the Second World War.
