I'm excited for your guest posts! You have great taste so I know they will be a lovely and thought-provoking read.
Also, welcome to the Diana Wynne Jones club--I seem to have started a tradition where I give my friends some of her novels for Christmas every year. I just had a box of them arrive this morning :) and I am very excited because her more obscure and experimental book *The Tough Guide to Fantasyland* just got a reprinting! It's a travel guide for a fantasy realm that's been transformed into a theme park and forms a loose companion to her *Derkholm* duology. If you enjoy *Chrestomanci* then you will probably want to pick up either *Derkholm* or *The Magids* next.
We have some cool people lined up yes! I really want to read the tough guide so glad to hear it’s been reprinted. I have Howl next as I love the movie then I think Derkholm after that. Don’t know Magids sounds intriguing…
If you can, get a copy of Howl with the anniversary notes by DWJ! She reflected on the movie (and admitted to owning several castle and Calcifer figurines).
It's really hard to find a copy of the first Magids book, *Deep Secret,* as it was one of her first novels, and one of only three that she wrote for adults. I was lucky enough to find one (missing its book jacket, sadly) at a used bookstore. It's well worth the hunt and has shaped up to be one of my favorites of hers for the sheer amount of fun it is! The second one, *The Merlin Conspiracy,* is also very fun and can mostly stand on its own but it's nice to have the extra context about one of the main characters.
The Merlin conspiracy seems to have a murder plot which is my other favourite thing in a novel so that might go to the top of the list... I found her talking about the movie on YouTube which was pretty cool. Will have to blog about her soon... I didn’t know figures were available. Will have to stock up for the kids!
I just followed the link through to the Defence of Esther Summerson - what a great piece! Thank you. I couldnt see a way to comment on it directly - but I agree that Bleak House stakes a claim to be as great a novel as Middlemarch. I would also wave a flag for Trollope's The Way We Live Now. I think these three are all superb, they form the perfect trilogy of 19th Century Life, and hence, of all lives!
After reading your essays for a while, I read four novels by Jane Gardam and loved them! Also one by Penelope Fitzgerald, "Offshore," and thought it seemed like it wasn't finished.
When I click your link to "They Went to Portugal," I see a book of that title by Rose Macaulay.
Isn’t she marvellous? Which ones did you read? Offshore is supposed to be like that—it’s about the inbetweenness of the people, their indeterminate position. Ugh. What a silly error thanks.
I started with The Queen of the Tambourine, then charged on through the Old Filth trilogy and loved them all. The trilogy reminded me a little bit of reading the later-in-history books by the author of Shogun -- books about the British in Hong Kong. It's been a long time since I read those.
Great books. The early short stories are especially good and the people who live on privilege hill. I reread Old Filth a couple of years ago. Splendid stuff.
Diana Wynne Jones is great. I also went through a phase a few years ago when I read everything she's ever written in less than a month!
I'm excited for your guest posts! You have great taste so I know they will be a lovely and thought-provoking read.
Also, welcome to the Diana Wynne Jones club--I seem to have started a tradition where I give my friends some of her novels for Christmas every year. I just had a box of them arrive this morning :) and I am very excited because her more obscure and experimental book *The Tough Guide to Fantasyland* just got a reprinting! It's a travel guide for a fantasy realm that's been transformed into a theme park and forms a loose companion to her *Derkholm* duology. If you enjoy *Chrestomanci* then you will probably want to pick up either *Derkholm* or *The Magids* next.
We have some cool people lined up yes! I really want to read the tough guide so glad to hear it’s been reprinted. I have Howl next as I love the movie then I think Derkholm after that. Don’t know Magids sounds intriguing…
If you can, get a copy of Howl with the anniversary notes by DWJ! She reflected on the movie (and admitted to owning several castle and Calcifer figurines).
It's really hard to find a copy of the first Magids book, *Deep Secret,* as it was one of her first novels, and one of only three that she wrote for adults. I was lucky enough to find one (missing its book jacket, sadly) at a used bookstore. It's well worth the hunt and has shaped up to be one of my favorites of hers for the sheer amount of fun it is! The second one, *The Merlin Conspiracy,* is also very fun and can mostly stand on its own but it's nice to have the extra context about one of the main characters.
The Merlin conspiracy seems to have a murder plot which is my other favourite thing in a novel so that might go to the top of the list... I found her talking about the movie on YouTube which was pretty cool. Will have to blog about her soon... I didn’t know figures were available. Will have to stock up for the kids!
I just followed the link through to the Defence of Esther Summerson - what a great piece! Thank you. I couldnt see a way to comment on it directly - but I agree that Bleak House stakes a claim to be as great a novel as Middlemarch. I would also wave a flag for Trollope's The Way We Live Now. I think these three are all superb, they form the perfect trilogy of 19th Century Life, and hence, of all lives!
Yea Trollope surely underrated in these stakes. BH is the great English novel to me.
After reading your essays for a while, I read four novels by Jane Gardam and loved them! Also one by Penelope Fitzgerald, "Offshore," and thought it seemed like it wasn't finished.
When I click your link to "They Went to Portugal," I see a book of that title by Rose Macaulay.
Isn’t she marvellous? Which ones did you read? Offshore is supposed to be like that—it’s about the inbetweenness of the people, their indeterminate position. Ugh. What a silly error thanks.
I started with The Queen of the Tambourine, then charged on through the Old Filth trilogy and loved them all. The trilogy reminded me a little bit of reading the later-in-history books by the author of Shogun -- books about the British in Hong Kong. It's been a long time since I read those.
Great books. The early short stories are especially good and the people who live on privilege hill. I reread Old Filth a couple of years ago. Splendid stuff.