{"id":4443,"date":"2011-03-30T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T17:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=4443"},"modified":"2011-03-29T20:26:56","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T07:26:56","slug":"diana-wynne-jones-1934-2011-a-personal-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/03\/30\/diana-wynne-jones-1934-2011-a-personal-tribute\/","title":{"rendered":"Diana Wynne Jones, 1934-2011: A Personal Tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4447\" href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/03\/30\/diana-wynne-jones-1934-2011-a-personal-tribute\/8days2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4447\" title=\"8days2\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/8days2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"201\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/8days2.jpg 201w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/8days2-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a>On <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/06\/06\/diana-wynne-jones\/\">6 June 2010<\/a>, in response to the news that Diana Wynne Jones had decided to cease chemotherapy treatment for cancer, I spoke of how I had: <em>&#8221; &#8230; known, loved and valued her work since my early teens.\u00a0 The first book I recall reading was <strong><em>A Power of Three<\/em><\/strong>\u2014and I loved it.\u00a0 Within the next few years I read both <em><strong>Eight Days of Luke<\/strong><\/em> and <em><strong>Cart and Cwidder<\/strong><\/em>, which together are possibly still my favourite of all her books. But it is hard to say, because I don\u2019t believe I have ever read a Diana Wynne Jones novel that I didn\u2019t like and sometimes the book one likes best can depend on reading mood.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I also said, in answer to the rhetorical question as to whether Diana Wynne Jones had influenced my own development as a writer, that the answer had to be a resounding &#8220;yes.&#8221;\u00a0 In particular, I have always admired the way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4448\" href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2011\/03\/30\/diana-wynne-jones-1934-2011-a-personal-tribute\/cart-cwidder\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4448\" title=\"Cart &amp; Cwidder\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Cart-Cwidder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"119\" height=\"190\" \/><\/a>she draws the reader in through juxtaposing a sense of wonder with the completely everyday; and<\/li>\n<li>explores the furthest boundaries of imagination;<\/li>\n<li>her youthful heroes and heroines never lose their realism, no matter how extraordinary their adventures;<\/li>\n<li>she managed to write stories with layers of meaning that nonetheless never &#8220;preached&#8221; at her readers; and<\/li>\n<li>sustained the quality of her writing over such a prolonged period.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In short, as I also said on June 6, I love both her stories and the way in which she told her stories and I felt immeasurably sad when I learned that she had left us on Saturday 26 March.<\/p>\n<p>Haere ra, Diana Wynne Jones: you&#8217;ve left some pretty big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 6 June 2010, in response to the news that Diana Wynne Jones had decided to cease chemotherapy treatment for cancer, I spoke of how I had: &#8221; &#8230; known, loved and valued her work since my early teens.\u00a0 The first book I recall reading was A Power of Three\u2014and I loved it.\u00a0 Within the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4443"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4457,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4443\/revisions\/4457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}