At Bookstr, we love to honor the authors and artists who’ve paved the way for where — and who — we are now. In particular, those who have been marginalized throughout history. Today, join us on a journey into fantasy literature’s past as we delve into the life and work of one female author who shaped the genre we know and love today.
The fantasy genre is no stranger to stories with witchcraft and wizardry, magic schools, and heartwarming romances. And this in no small part is thanks to author Diana Wynne Jones. In this installation of Bookstr Trivia, prepare to learn about Jones’s life, work, legacy, and how she revolutionized this beloved genre.
Jones’ Young Life
Diana Wynne Jones, born on August 16, 1934, was a British writer of over 40 fantasy books for young readers. Yet, despite the whimsical worlds Jones would later create, her upbringing was one of surprising hardship. In her early schooling days, Jones struggled with dyslexia. Despite this, she developed a love for books and reading. Her favorites included Richard Burton’s A Thousand and One Nights and Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. It was in these early years that Jones made up her mind about becoming an author, and she began to pen stories for her sisters, fellow future author Ursula Jones and future academic Isobel Armstrong.
Jones’s parents, Marjorie and Richard Aneurin Jones, tended to be neglectful towards her and her sisters. Despite them being progressive educators themselves, Jones’ unsympathetic parents often let their daughters go hungry and forced them to sleep in a shed when visitors came to call. Their father bought them a set of Arthur Ransome books for Christmas but cruelly insisted on giving them one book per year. This neglect was, in part, responsible for Jones’ imaginings of more magical worlds and her roots as an author.
When Jones was a young child, World War II spread chaos across Britain. The Jones family was forced to relocate to the Lake District of Wales. There, they stayed in the home of Arthur Ransome, author of the children’s adventure novel Swallows and Amazons. It was during this time that Jones also met beloved children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, best known for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It would be these seminal years of Jones’ life that would go on to inspire her career as a children’s author.
Jones’ Writing Roots
In 1953, Jones began studying at St. Anne’s College in Oxford, where she would graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English three years later. During these years, Jones attended lectures by C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings). Jones’ fantastical education under the tutelage of authors who’d written some of the century’s seminal texts would go on to shape her as a writer. The year she graduated from Oxford, Jones married John Burrow, a British scholar of medieval literature, to whom she would remain married until her passing. They shared three sons. As Jones read them children’s stories, she grew increasingly inspired about her career in children’s literature.
During a number of difficult years, especially with three young children, Jones began submitting her writings to literary agents and publishers, to no avail. Her first book would be a novel for adults, but her literary career would truly take off once her children reached school age. From here on out, Jones would be known primarily as a children’s author.
Jones — The Writer
Jones’s children’s books served as a vital stepping stone between the works of Lewis and those of more modern children’s authors. While earlier children’s stories strayed toward lighter themes, Jones wasn’t afraid to combine her characteristic whimsy with topics of war, deception, betrayal, and neglect. She built on her own difficulties from her youth and never spoke down to young readers, understanding that they could feel and grasp more challenging topics than often expected of them.
Throughout her career, Jones penned Witch’s Business (1973), Eight Days of Luke (1975), The Ogre Downstairs (1974), among dozens more. Her books most often featured magic and wizards. Her most beloved works include The Chronicles of Chrestomanci series and Howl’s Moving Castle (1986). The latter, perhaps being Jones’s most famous and beloved work, was adapted into an equally loved animated film by Hayo Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli in 2004.
Howl’s Moving Castle follows Sophie Hatter, the eldest of three sisters, who is cursed by a witch into becoming an elderly woman, and Howl Pendragon, a vainglorious wizard, seeking love and escape from his duty to the crown. Readers and viewers fell in love with the whimsical world of Ingary and the laugh-out-loud, swoon-worthy love story both on-screen and on the page. Jones also authored the fantasy cult classic The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (1996). This non-fiction novel guides readers through the humorous tropes and cliches of the fantasy genre. This book revealed Jones’ critiques, however light-hearted, of the likes of Tolkien and Lewis, the very same authors under whom she studied.
Jones’s Magical Legacy
Jones was highly celebrated and awarded in her lifetime, one such award being the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007. She was the runner-up for the Carnegie Medal from the Library Association a remarkable three times. She also won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for children’s literature in 1996 for The Crown of Dalemark.
She was among the ranks of the past century’s best minds and writers, greatly impacting and being impacted by them. As a female writer, her place among these ranks was highly valuable and inspiring to a new generation of fantasy writers. Her work was instrumental in children’s literature and no doubt paved the way for the fantasy genre, of which wizards and magic are now staples.
In 2011, Jones passed away at the age of 76. She announced she was quitting chemotherapy following a strenuously painful year of treatment. Her death marked the close of her fruitful, decades-long career. But her words would continue to find life in the hearts of readers. Jones’ sister, Ursula Jones completed her sister’s final unfinished work, The Islands of Chaldea. Jones is remembered for her remarkable impact on (and humorous critique of) the fantasy genre, her beloved novels, and her success in the male-dominated world of literature. She opened doors for more female authors, leaving behind her countless worlds of magic and mischief. Fantasy fans around the world, let us all raise a glass (or a book) to Jones and her legacy.
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