Reflections (36 page)

 

 

 

Address at Diana's Funeral

Richard Burrow

 

Mum had many good qualities, particularly her sense of humor and her extraordinary generosity. When I came to write down my thoughts, however, I discovered I didn't want to talk about these, but rather about her books and what they reveal about her as a person. This is because the real core of Mum is most evident in her books, for reasons that I hope to make clear. What follows then is not literary criticism, but an attempt to discover the person in the books.

I loved my mother desperately as a child. My fondest memories are of all three of us snuggling up to her for a bedtime story. She read very well and I often feel that she imagined her own books being read aloud as she wrote. They read aloud beautifully, as Neil Gaiman says in his obituary on the internet.
¹
Later on I was to read all her books to my own children, and I discovered an almost poetic beauty at times, especially in the Dalemark books, which I always imagine being spoken by some bard who has scraped them together from various oral traditions.

It is in these books and a few others like
The Homeward Bounders
,
Hexwood
, and
Fire and Hemlock
that one discovers the real heart of this deeply shy and guarded person: as with Charles Dickens and Georgette Heyer, two of her favorite writers, her books are sustained by an enormous love; a childlike yearning to create a world that fully satisfies the human soul. As with Dickens, this yearning is so powerful that it creates an almost poetic language and rhythm which help to transform the everyday world. (Dickens, it is said, had constantly to guard against slipping into blank verse, and reading
Drowned Ammet
, one feels that same songlike quality; music, always the most immediately emotional of the arts, constantly threatens to take over.)

This yearning or elegiac quality that one finds in many of Mum's best books is partly a sign of the deep pain caused by her upbringing. At the heart of her books is a sense of loss. From this point of view,
The Homeward Bounders
, the most tragic of her books, is also the most honest. The main character is left literally creating worlds for others while never being able to return to his own. This book is atypical, however; more frequently the poetic beauty, the humor, and the sensuous vividness of the fantasy transport the reader away from this imperfect world. So many of the tweets that have flooded in recently have referred to one or other of Mum's books as the writer's “comfort book,” read time and again in times of stress. The pain of her upbringing may have meant that she could only give and receive comfort sporadically in the “real world,” but what she gave us is in a sense real in a deeper way: a direct line to that perfect world which all of us yearn for, whether we know it or not.

As I say, I read all her books aloud to Ruth particularly, who is dyslexic and was quite late learning to read. We had two copies of all of them, which meant that she could follow as I read. I remember solemnly forbidding her to read on by herself, knowing that she was so ornery that any encouragement would have backfired, and being secretly delighted the next night when I realized that she had read on a chapter, as well as disappointed at losing the pleasure of reading it aloud to her. It was in this cozy situation, reading aloud to my daughter, that Mum, like the incorporeal mother in
The Spellcoats
, came alive and spoke to me, offering me and anyone else who reads her books comfort.

Diana Wynne Jones Bibliography

ADULT BOOKS

 

Changeover,
1970

A Sudden Wild Magic,
1992

Deep Secret,
1997

 

STAND-ALONE CHILDREN'S BOOKS

 

Wilkins' Tooth
(US:
Witch's Business
), 1973

The Ogre Downstairs,
1974

Eight Days of Luke,
1975

Dogsbody,
1975

Power of Three,
1976

Time of the Ghost,
1981

The Homeward Bounders,
1981

Archer's Goon,
1984

Fire and Hemlock,
1985

A Tale of Time City,
1987

Black Maria
(US:
Aunt Maria
), 1991

Hexwood,
1993

The Dark Lord of Derkholm
, 1998

Year of the Griffin
, 2000

The Merlin Conspiracy,
2003

The Game,
2007

Enchanted Glass,
2010

 

THE DALEMARK QUARTET

 

Cart and Cwidder,
1975

Drowned Ammet,
1977

The Spellcoats,
1979

The Crown of Dalemark,
1993

 

THE CHRESTOMANCI SERIES

 

Charmed Life,
1977

The Magicians of Caprona,
1980

Witch Week,
1982

The Lives of Christopher Chant,
1988

Mixed Magics,
2000

Stealer of Souls,
2002

Conrad's Fate,
2005

The Pinhoe Egg,
2006

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
, Volume I (contains
Charmed Life
and
The Lives of Christopher Chant
)

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
, Volume II (contains
The Magicians of Caprona
and
Witch Week
)

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci
, Volume III (contains the short stories also found in
Mixed Magics
)

 

THE HOWL SERIES

 

Howl's Moving Castle,
1986

Castle in the Air,
1990

House of Many Ways,
2008

 

FOR YOUNGER READERS

 

Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?,
1978

The Four Grannies,
1980

Chair Person,
1989

Wild Robert,
1989

Yes, Dear,
1992

Stopping for a Spell
(contains
Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?
,
The Four Grannies,
and
Chair Person
), 1993

Puss in Boots,
1999

Earwig and the Witch,
2011

 

Short Story Anthologies

 

Warlock at the Wheel,
1984

Hidden Turnings
(editor), 1989

Fantasy Stories
(editor), (US:
Spellbound
), 1994

Everard's Ride,
1995

Minor Arcana,
1996

Believing Is Seeing,
1999

Unexpected Magic,
2004

 

NONFICTION/HUMOR

 

The Skiver's Guide,
1984

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland,
1996

 

PLAYS

 

The Batterpool Business,
1968

The King's Things,
1970

The Terrible Fisk Machine,
1972

 

Diana Wynne Jones also wrote several poems and short stories that have been published in anthologies.

Index

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use your ebook reader's search tools.

 

Page numbers in italics refer to photographs.

 

academics, xxiv, 276–77, 289, 295

adults: control over children's books, 160–61, 244–45, 247; reading children's books, 33, 35, 177–78, 244; refusing to read children's books, 177

Agassi, Andre, 144

agents:
see
literary agents

Aiken, Joan, 72, 106

air raids, 273

alchemy, 53

Alcock, Vivien, 41

Alice in Wonderland,
256

Alice Through the Looking-Glass
(
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
), 9, 121

allegories, 28, 85, 92, 101, 162, 205, 236

alternate worlds, 48, 199–201, 248, 253, 345–46

Amber Spyglass, The,
237, 245

Andersen, Hans Christian, 80

Andromeda, 84, 91

Anglo-Saxon, language, xxix–xxx, 58–60

Arabian Nights, The,
80, 274

Arcadias, 343, 345, 346, 349, 350

Archer's Goon,
xiii, xix, xxiv, 89, 154, 158, 218, 347; Goon 218; Quentin Sykes 158; Torquil 218

archetypes, 145, 166, 174, 242

Archimedes, 132, 169–70

Ariadne, 82, 143

Artegal, Sir, 91

Arthur, King, 10, 82, 202

assumptions about books, 35, 39, 42, 161

Atlantis, 27

Aunt Maria
:
see
Black Maria

Austen, Jane, 208

autographs, 69

Avery, Gillian, 36

 

Bacchus, 143

baddies, 17, 62, 105, 112, 149, 161, 259

ballads, 60, 88, 89, 214, 215

banned books, 249

Battle of Britain, 266

Bear's Son, the, 151, 152

Bell, Chris, 99, 110

Bellerophon, 91

Beowulf
,
16, 59, 83, 87

Biggles, 52

Birkbeck College, London, 182

Black Maria
,
xx, 111, 142, 148, 153, 170, 224, 248, 348; Antony Green, 155; Aunt Maria, 154–55, 170, 348; Chris, 153–55, 170–71; Mig, 153–55

Blyton, Enid, 39, 72

Boadicea, 156

bombs, 134, 224, 266, 273, 285

book awards, judging, 44–45, 75, 167, 237

book signings, 35, 142, 231

books: coming true, 61, 157; endings of, 139–40, 174, 185; length of, 34–37, 109, 237, 249, 284; titles, 141;
see also
children's books

Books for Keeps
magazine, 233

booksellers, 160

Boskone, 99

Box of Delights, The
,
73, 163, 171

Boy in Darkness
,
xxx, 233–36

boys' reading habits, 4, 88, 145, 188

Brave Little Tailor, the,
81, 144

Brewer, D. S., 8

Bristol, 94, 157, 297, 314

Bristol University, 297

British Science Fiction Society, 157

Britomart, 86–87, 88, 89, 91, 93, 94, 156

Brunhilde, 56, 84, 156, 184

Bull, Emma, 33

bullies, 77, 87, 155–56, 248, 282

Burnett, Frances Hodgson, 193

“Burnt Norton,” 94

Burrow, John A.:
see
Diana Wynne Jones, husband

Burrow, Colin:
see
Diana Wynne Jones, sons

Burrow, Michael:
see
Diana Wynne Jones, sons

Burrow, Richard:
see
Diana Wynne Jones, sons

 

Cabell, James Branch, 233

Calypso, 90

Canterbury Tales, The
,
84, 204

Carnegie Medal, xiii

“Carol Oneir's Hundredth Dream,” xxiv, 212–13; Carol, 212–13, 215–17, 220–22, 229; Cast of Thousands, 219, 221; Chrestomanci, 212–14, 215–17, 221; Melville, 217; Tonino, 216

Carroll, Lewis, 9

Cart and Cwidder
,
37, 88, 148, 296; Brid, 148

cats, 285, 312

Cecil, Laura, xxviii, 296

censorship, 121, 160, 166

Chandler, Raymond, 85

Changeover
,
295, 311–13, 321

characterization, 255–59

characters in books, 3–4, 53, 127, 138–39, 148–49, 347; coming alive, 50, 247, 257, 341; repeated, 217–18

Charmed Life
, xvii, 35, 148, 209, 216, 220, 224, 248, 297, 339, 341, 346; Chrestomanci, 220; Eric (Cat), 346; Gwendolen, 149, 341; Millie, 340; Mrs. Sharp, 220

Chaucer, Geoffrey, 7, 84, 85, 127, 204–05, 210

children: as readers, 34, 36–37; fears, 116; lack of power, 161, 134; laughing, 53; playing, 1–2; with problems, 75, 104, 164, 209, 246

children's books, 77, 86, 166–68, 244; bad, 38, 190, 322; classics, 121; fantasy, 107, 111, 120, 322; reading them aloud, 38, 119, 354

Children's Books Ireland, 211

Children's Encyclopaedia, The
, 124

Children's Literature New England, 79

Chrestomanci, 148, 151, 212–13, 215, 220

Chrestomanci series, xiii, xxii, 248, 340

Christmas Carol, A
,
42

Christopher, John, 106

“Cinderella,” 125, 147, 174

Circe, 90

Clarance House:
see
conference center, run by Diana Wynne Jones's parents

Clarke, Arthur C., 169

“Clerk's Tale, The,” 84

clichés, 38, 245

Clute, John, 99

conference center, run by Diana Wynne Jones's parents (Clarance House), 63–64, 123, 124, 125, 182, 184, 185, 192, 224, 225, 275,
278
, 285

Cooper, Susan, 106

Cradock, Fanny, 165

creative process, 115–16, 211, 215, 219

Cunningham, Valentine, 58, 60

“Cupid and Psyche,” 95, 96, 147

 

Daedalus, 74, 169

Dalemark quartet, xix, xxi, 148, 340, 352; Brid 148; Moril 148

Dante (degli Alighieri), 210, 293, 349

Dark Lord of Derkholm, The
,
xxi, 346

daydreaming, 132

Death of Arthur, The
:
see
Morte D'Arthur, Le

Deep Secret
,
xix, xxi, xxii, 231; Rupert Venables, xxiii

description in books, 37, 109, 258

detective stories, 110

dialects in writing, 105

Dickens, Charles, 42, 85, 352

Dickinson, Peter, 106

Doctor Who
,
39, 107, 112

dogs, 175, 216, 247, 285,
298
, 343, 350

Dogsbody
,
xiii, 88, 154, 176, 216, 247, 296, 343

Doors, The, 349–50

“Dream of the Rood,” 59

Drowned Ammet
, 37, 148–49, 165, 219, 297, 353; Al 219

Dungeons and Dragons, 75

Dunsany, Lord, 233

dyslexia, 120, 181, 335, 353

 

“East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” 95, 147

editors, 34, 37, 39, 40, 41, 214, 244, 245, 338–39

Eight Days of Luke
,
54, 88, 105, 126, 144, 188, 203, 245, 248, 283, 296, 328; Astrid, 105; Cousin Ronald, 55; David, 54–55, 88, 105; Luke, 55; Mr. Chew, 55; Thor, 105

Eliot, T. S., 93–98, 207, 214

elves, xix, 12, 16, 18–19, 31, 208

emotions, 40, 57, 108, 156, 217, 351

Enchanted Glass,
342

Encyclopaedia of Fantasy
,
99, 111

Epimetheus, 91

Eurydice, 94

evacuees, 224, 228, 268

Everard's Ride
, 6, 99

 

Faerie Queene, The
,
85–86

Fairy Queen, the, 93, 347, 350

fairy stories, 10, 12, 77, 101, 129, 166, 202, 247, 330

fantasy, 39, 110, 120, 174, 177, 190, 211, 237–39, 322, 326; comic, 113; fans, 177–78; fashions and rules in, 100, 108, 239; for children, 108, 111, 178, 238, 245, 344; high, 113; imitations, 327; value of, xxviii, 4–5, 77, 129–30, 194–95

Farmer, Penelope, 106, 120

Fate, 92, 143

feelings, writing about them, 139

Female Eunuch, The
,
191

feminism, 88–89, 146–47, 188, 189

Fire and Hemlock
,
xiii, xx, xxii, xxiv, xxvi, 34, 36, 79, 89, 95, 126, 147, 154, 157, 158, 180, 207, 214, 218, 224, 249, 329, 334, 337, 344, 347, 352; Fiona, 92, 96; Granny, xxii, 92; Ivy, 92; Laurel, 90, 92, 95; Mr. Leroy, 7

 

George, St., 91

Gerda (in “The Snow Queen”), 91

Germans:
see
Nazis

Gestapo:
see
Nazis

ghosts, 42, 147, 185, 276, 277, 296

God, 81, 86, 93, 103, 143, 254

gods, 55, 81, 83, 86, 92, 143, 144, 203, 340

Good Book Guide, The
,
56

Gothic Romance, 209

Goudge, Elizabeth, 189

Grail, the, 11

Greer, Germaine, 191

Griffiths, Elaine:
see
Diana Wynne Jones, Anglo-Saxon tutor

Grimm, the Brothers, 80, 329

Groan, Titus, 233–36

growing up, 73, 103, 107

Guardian
Award, 44–46, 297

Gwydion, Welsh hero, 144

 

Hades, 90, 208

Halloween, 62, 64

Hansel and Gretel, 111

happy endings, 108, 174, 184

Harlequin, 91

head teachers, 62, 69, 177, 179, 181, 195, 282

Hector of Troy, 82

Henryson, Robert, 208

Hercules, 82, 174

Hero (Greek legend), 80, 84, 95

heroes, 79–98, 142–56, 184, 214; faults, 95, 143, 146; female, 56, 80, 86, 88, 145–47, 153; journey of, 94; miraculous origin, 151; quests, 96

Hexwood
,
xix, 171, 210, 230, 337–38, 352

Heyer, Georgette, 352

historical novels, 199–201

Hitler, Adolf, 132, 264

Hobbit, The
,
14

Hodgson, Miriam, 299

Homer, 83, 90

Homeward Bounders, The
,
xxi, xxii, 35, 114, 338, 347, 352, 353; Jamie, 114, 347; Joris, xxii; Prometheus, 114

Horn Book Magazine
,
68

horror stories, 108, 110, 154

House at Pooh Corner, The
, 102

House of Many Ways
,
350

Howl's Moving Castle
,
xx, 133, 144, 209, 218, 326, 347, 349; Calcifer ,314; film, 314, 330, 347; Howl, xx, 144, 218; Sophie, xx, 349; Witch of the Waste, 349

Hughes, Arthur, 293

 

Iceland, 200

ideas, 137, 206, 222, 227

Iliad, The
, 80

imagination, 73, 74, 94, 96, 114, 120, 129, 157, 163, 169–70, 181, 195, 220, 280, 347; supposed dangers of, 76, 168–69; world of, 89, 96

influence of writers, 160, 174

insights, xxiv, 114, 234

 

J. R. R. Tolkien: This Far Land
,
6

Janet (from “Tam Lin”), 89, 91, 96

Japan, 126, 330

Jason (Greek hero), 82, 143

Jesus College, Oxford, 295