Remembering Diana

There's been so many articles and blog posts about Diana Wynne Jones in the week since her death—more, I think, than I can remember for any other author. And I've read so many people say, on places like Facebook and in the comments to obituaries and In Memoriams, "Oh, I've never heard of this author before, but now I want to read her". And so in the way of these things, a whole new generation (and by that I don't mean age) of Diana Wynne Jones fans is about to be born.

And so, as we all knew, her legacy will live on through her books. But I had a conversation with a friend last night, who, enquiring how I was in the wake of Diana's death (a few people have done that, it's been very touching), said something very beautiful to me. Neil had read my blog (I assume!), or anyway, he knows the story of why Diana means so much to me, and her influence on, and he said to me last night that she will live on, not simply through her books, although certainly that, but through the line of writers that will follow in her wake precisely because of the influence her work had on people like me, who in turn, and as a result, are helping new writers grow. That's kind of a clumsy way of putting it—Neil is much more adept than me at Plain English—but it was such a wonderful way of thinking about Diana's heritage-to-come that I wanted to share it.

Anyway, I've decided to try and aggregate as many of the online media, blogs and other tributes to Diana I can find. Someone wondered out loud on the Diana Wynne Jones listserve if anyone was somehow collecting the vast amount of words that have been said about her this past week, and so I offered. I'll keep adding to this as I find new material, so please fell free to send me any links and I'll add to it. And I've also been given permission to post some of the emails sent to the listserve. Feel free to use the comments to add your own tribute if you feel so moved.

Newspapers and magazines:

The Guardian Obituary (See also Nicholas Tucker's letter questioning the story about Beatrix Potter slapping Diana's younger sister.)

The Wild Magic of Diana Wynne Jones by Alison Flood (from The Guardian)

An appreciation from The Guardian from its Book Blog.

The Telegraph (UK) Obit

And also from the Telegraph, this article: Diana Wynne Jones: a wizard writer whose young life was far from magical

Charlie Butler's obituary in The Independent (and he is not responsible for the headline!)

Washington Post

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

The Toronto Star

BBC4 Last Word program. Diana is discussed by Nicholas Tucker and Farah Mendlesohn at 10.48

The Horn Book reprints Diana's article Birthing a Book and a letter from her on NOT writing a new Narnia novel

Locus Magazine

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Deborah Kaplan (manager of the DWJ listserve and the Chrestomanci Castle website) at Kirkus Review

Karen Healey's wonderful tribute at Strange Horizons

Blogs:

Neil Gaiman: Being Alive. Mostly About Diana.

Farah Mendlesohn at Tor.com

Emma Bull, also at Tor.com

Katherine Langrish/Seven Miles of Steel Thistles: Diana Wynne Jones - In Memoriam

Monica Edinger/Educating Alice: Diana Wynne Jones: An Appreciation

Maria Nikolajeva reposts her entry on Diana from the Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales

More from Charlie Butler here and here

Lili Wilkinson

Mary Hoffman: Queen and Huntress

Celia Rees

Pamela Dean: I want to tell of our journey down the river

John Scalzi

Patricia C. Wrede: Diana

Bothersome Words

Maggie Stiefvater

Tamora Pierce

Robin McKinley

Jane Yolen

Elizabeth Moon: Reminders of Mortality

Slightly Addicted to Fiction

Voyager Blog

Book Aunt

Tandaudel: Archer's Gone

Teabag Central: An Exciting and Exacting Wisdom—In Tribute to Diana Wynne Jones

Life or Books?

Things Mean a Lot

Emma and Rosy Barnes: Sorcerors and Siblings

Debbie Gascoyne: Remembering Diana Wynne Jones

Gili Bar-Hillel: An Appreciation (Gili is one of Diana's Hebrew translators and publishers)

Bookselling with Granger: A Lament for Diana Wynne Jones

Kerry Bryna Mockler at The Moving Castle: Related Worlds

Laura Atkins

Katiefoolery: To the Most Awesome Diana Wynne Jones

Tales of the Marvelous: RIP Diana Wynne Jones

Tui Talk: The Sunday Read: In Memory of Diana Wynne Jones

Makyo Livejournal

Delia Sherman's Grand Tour: Diana Wynne Jones RIP

J.L. Bell's Oz and Ends: Remembering the Stories of Diana Wynne Jones

Mary Anne Mohanraj

Rachel M Brown's Dangerous Jam

Sarah Monette's Notes from the Labyrinth

The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent. (Andrew Wheeler)

Ansible

A tribute & illustration from Treacle-Miner

Ellen Renner at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure

From the Diana Wynne Jones listserve:

Kylie/Splanky at LiveJournal

Anicalewis

Shining Garnet 1 and Scary4Eva

Joyeuce at Livejournal

Hebrew language tributes (thanks Gili!)

Inbal Saggiv-Nakdimon, translator of The Homeward Bounders and A Tale of

Time City

Itamar Zohar, Haaretz

Raz Greenberg (a serious Miyazaki fan), Moomoo

Unknown author, Fantasy Society

Posted on the listserve:

From Deborah Meghnagi Bailey: Tribute to DWJ

I don't remember exactly how old I was when I first read one of Diana Wynne

Jones' books. Probably around 8 or 9. I do remember it was Witch Week. I

know that I took it off the shelf in my classroom's small library, and I

also know that I didn't return it; that I kept that red hardback to read,

over and over again. I think I eventually got my mother to return it for me

when my brother, fifteen years my junior, was just about to leave that

school. By then I'd bought my own copy. I'm also fairly sure that Archer's

Goon was the next DWJ book I 'forgot to return'; this time from my secondary

school library. It's not that I thought it was the right thing to do; I just

couldn't bear to part from it. That one eventually got returned too, years

after I'd graduated. I guess I must have felt guilty, though, because while

I remember clearly being utterly haunted and mesmerized by Fire and Hemlock,

and that I found that, too, in my secondary school library, I didn't keep

it. And I'm pretty sure that I read other Chrestomanci books when I was

young, and A Tale of Time City as well. But I was a voracious reader, often

reading a book a night, and so the ones that went back to the school or

council libraries and didn't remain on my shelves faded into my general

memories of the thousands of books I read. I remembered them, sort of, for a

long time.

       My first favourite author was Enid Blyton (at age 5), quickly

supplanted by C.S. Lewis, quickly supplanted (at the age of 8 ) by Tolkien,

who remained my primary passion until I was 17, when I discovered Guy

Gavriel Kay. Diana remained a favourite though, enough that as I prepared to

move to Israel at the age of 22, in 1995, before the age of the internet and

amazon, I went into WH Smiths and I asked them to look up Diana Wynne Jones

on their computers and I ordered a copy of every single book of hers that

was then in print. That's how I finally got my own copy of Fire and Hemlock,

and was able to lose myself once more in that amazing book about lonely,

creative children and neglectful parents, and books and poems and courage

and how being a hero means ignoring how stupid you feel. That's also how I

discovered Hexwood, which quickly became a new favourite. I still remember

the first time I read it, the way my whole understanding of the book had to

shift right in the middle. And how Mordion joined Thomas Lynn as men to

love.

       I don't read C.S. Lewis anymore, and I know I would cringe if I

picked up Enid Blyton. Even Tolkien, much as I love the memory of what his

books did for me, stays on my shelf unopened. I've kept some YA books on my

shelves, through many different homes, but in the past twenty years I think

I've only re-read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising sequence once, and I

haven't opened Prydain or Narnia. I do dip back into Madeleine L'Engle every

now and then. But Diana Wynne Jones. well, she is in a category all her own.

Over the years I have bought all her books except one, and I just ordered

Wilkin's Tooth today. And I re-read them constantly. I can't think of

another author that I have read this long, and this consistently. To enjoy a

book you first read as an eight or nine year old just as much when you are

thirty years older. that says something very special about the kind of

writer DWJ was. I emailed her once, via her website, although I never got a

reply. Told her, in that letter, that I thought Fire and Hemlock was that

perfect book she had said she kept wanting to write and not quite managing

to.

Thinking about it now, I'm realizing that she is one of the only authors I

have read consistently who has continued to publish throughout my life.

Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, died before I was born. Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper,

Madeine L'Engle  - I think of theirs as books from my past (although I was

very sad when L'Engle died a couple of years ago). Diana's books have been a

constant presence, a new one every few years, plus that great bonanza when

old ones were reissued. I never knew her personally, but I wish I had. The

spirit that shines through her books is so vital, so generous and clever. I

have been affected profoundly by many books, books that have broken my

heart, books that have inspired me.but I can't think of any other author who

ever infused their work with as much sheer joy and fun as DWJ did, while at

the same time addressing serious themes and creating real characters and

amazingly moving plots. Her books are so varied, but they all have such

soul. When I heard that DWJ was very ill, I started a reread of every book

she'd written, and I started my husband on them too. I felt like maybe it

would be talismanic; keep her with us, somehow.

       So many people have described her books so well, I don't think I

should try myself. Just that. so much humanity, and laughter, and wit.

When people raved about Harry Potter, I'd think-Witch Week. Now those are

real children dealing with real problems. Those, I recognized from my own

life; the Theresas and Simons, the Nans and Charleses and Nirupams. To the

nine-year-old I was when I first read that book, it was nothing short of

miraculous that the nerds were the heroes. Brave, plump Nan. How reassuring.



       I still have to stop myself from laughing aloud when I read the

brilliant dialogue, the fantastic domestic scenes in Archer's Goon. I would

quite like to be adopted by Quentin and Catriona myself, just to become part

of that verbal sparring. Deep Secret - another brave nerd heroine to love,

and the magids are just brilliant, and Scarlatti being played again and

again in an empty car, and Janine can be a truly evil woman but we can still

laugh at her jumpers. And of course, even though I've only ever been to one

convention, what a delicious depiction! And again; real people, facing real

ethical issues, making real choices for good or evil, but being so. fun.

about it.

       So many memorable characters who have become part of me. I will

never tire of them, and I truly feel bereaved, that DWJ is no longer in this

world. It has become tangibly emptier, to me, even though I never met her. I

had one sort-of consolatory thought though, remembering her amazing

description of her childhood, and the world going mad when she turned five,

and escaping the blitz. What the world would have lost, had she not escaped!

Seventy-six was far too soon, but at least it was not tragically too soon.

She has given us so much, and from what I understand, she had a pretty great

life herself.

       My son is two and a half. I wonder when he'll be old enough that I

can start reading her books to him? I'm looking forward to that.