Anyway.
One of the saddest things I heard about in recent times was the death of Diana Wynne Jones. Now, aside from the obvious Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, 1984 and Alice in Wonderland, her novel Fire and Hemlock is one of my favourite books of all time, and perhaps the one I've read more than any other. Someone's review stated it's one of those books that you find something new in with every re-reading, and I'm inclined to agree. It's an...obscure book, I suppose, based on the ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer. It's the story of nineteen year old Polly Whittacker, who comes to have two sets of memories, and goes through those memories to find out she met a man named Thomas Lynn when she was about ten and gatecrashed a funeral by accident. And as she remembers, she has to unfortunately remember the event that caused her memories to be hidden, and has to do something, fast, to save the man she had come to love.
Now normally I'm not big on fantasy, except Harry Potter, but I really love Diana Wynne Jones. Howl's Moving Castle is another great book (the Ghibli film was also wonderful, but rather different to the book), as is Hexwood, and the Chrestomanci series...augh. I intend to finish all the books one day. Especially now that there's not going to be any more. Sigh.
I guess the thing I like most about her novels is the characters...they're not all unfailingly good. Take Sophie, from Howl's Moving Castle. A firey redhead who is predestined not to succeed. She and Howl spend the entire book at odds with each other, and even in the romantic resolution, are still fighting (albeit lovingly). But Sophie is hard to like - as is Howl. I had to reread it to have more sympathy for the both of them, to be honest. Howl was a good for nothing lazy arsehole who kept buggering off to Wales, whereas Sophie was...kind of a shrew.
And you still can't help but cheering when that romantic resolution comes around.
I suppose it's not that they're really difficult to like, as such, it's just that they're not wonderful friendly happy people. So to speak. They've got a lot of personality. All four of the girls in The Time Of The Ghost are absolutely horrid, but I grew to love them all. They're just characters that you need to give the time to grow on you.
Okay this is incoherent, bluh. But yes. I was dreadfully saddened by this news. And I can only highly recommend her books to any interested readers out there. They're excellent stories that, if you give them the time, are well and truly worth multiple readings.
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