Author Highlight: Diana Wynne Jones

Editor's note:

My colleague Jude shared with us on the passing of a British fantasy author, Diana Wynne Jones, recently and it led to me picking up some of her books. If you like magic - you might just like this one. Below is the article from Jude - posted with her permission of course ;).

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Diana Wynne Jones
The Departure of British Author of Fantasy

(1934 – 2011) 

The world of fantasy has lost one of its beloved authors, British writer Diana Wynne Jones, who succumbed to cancer on 26 March 2011 at the age of 76, leaving behind her husband, John A. Burrow, a Professor of English at Bristol University, her three sons and five grandchildren, as well as the many fans of her writings which include the Chrestomanci series and the Dalemark Quartet series.

Born in London on 16 August 1934, Jones had an unsettling childhood partly due to growing up during the World War II period. As good reads were hard to come by during those difficult times, she kept herself occupied by writing her own stories instead and sharing them with her sisters. It was then that she decided she wanted to be a writer when she grew up.

Jones was educated at Oxford where she met her husband-to-be and it was at Oxford that she had the privilege of attending lectures by the esteemed C.S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

To entertain her sons when they were growing up and beginning to read, Jones tried her hand at writing fantasy stories because that was what her children wanted to read, and so the journey began for her as she weaved magic and mythology into her 40-odd books that have captivated the imaginative minds of both children and young adults. She also wrote for the adults.

In 1977, Jones won the Guardian Award for Children’s Books for Charmed Life, the first book in the Chrestomanci series. In 1999, she was recognised for having made a significant impact on fantasy and was awarded the Mythopeic Award in the States and the Karl Edward Wagner Award in the UK, and in 2007, she was honoured with the Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Organization.

Despite her illness, Jones continued writing during her last days and has left us her final legacy, Earwig and the Witch, which will be published in 2011 / 2012.



By Jude, Children's Librarian

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