Celebrate Diana Wynne Jones!
A place where readers and fans can share their favorite DWJ books, quotes, stories, characters, covers, memories, interviews -- you name it! With contributions from her publishers all over the world.
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Cathy Butler took Diana on a hot-air balloon ride over Bristol as a birthday present in 2005. You can see the full set of photos here.
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Above: An old postcard of Clarance House, where Diana and her sisters were raised
Not only did Diana’s sister Isobel share her thoughts and memories at the Celebration, but she also wrote an elegy, which you can download and read at Agenda Poetry.
“I think the world was always magical for her. She decreed one evening that we children must all find a magical doorway from our shared bedroom into another world … “
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The program from the Celebration, on April 22 at St George’s Bristol.
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Cathy Butler, one of the Celebration’s organizers (and Diana’s last interviewer — a clip was played in Bristol) reflects upon the day.
“In the end, I believe we approached Diana from enough angles that we managed by a process of—not triangulation, perhaps, but polygonization?—to conjure her, if in a fitful way like a Star Wars hologram. It was the kind of event where one thought, ‘I wish Diana could see this - she’d really enjoy it!’”
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The first manuscript page of Howl’s Moving Castle. The DWJ Celebration in Bristol featured a book tower (previously posted), a cover display of all of the different editions, and manuscript pages, typescripts, and galleys. Thanks to Gili Bar-Hillel Semo for this Twitter picture!
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Right now, friends, publishers, editors, readers, and family are gathered in Bristol to celebrate Diana Wynne Jones’s life and work.
Ave, Diana! You are treasured and greatly missed.
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If you’re in the UK, a reminder that the celebration of Diana’s life and work takes place this Sunday in Bristol, at 2p.
Family and friends, her agent, her publishers from the UK and USA, and fellow writers, will describe what Diana meant to them. There will be a display of photographs, extracts from an interview, and from the films made of her books, and a reading from the unfinished story she left behind. Music from the ballet composed from Black Maria [US: Aunt Maria] and a book tower made from Diana’s books and their translations will also feature — the books will be sold for charity. Come and remember Diana’s extraordinary imagination.
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Diana in full regalia as Doctor of Letters.* The ceremony took place at the University of Bristol in 2006, and you can read the wonderful speech made about her here.
*You can just imagine what she had to say about this outfit.
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On Sunday, April 22, there will be a public celebration of Diana’s life and work. It will be held in Bristol, where she lived for many years (and where members of her family still live).
Family and friends, her agent, her publishers from the UK and USA, and fellow writers, will describe what Diana meant to them. There will be a display of photographs, extracts from an interview, and from the films made of her books, and a reading from the unfinished story she left behind. Music from the ballet composed from Black Maria and a book tower made from Diana’s books and their translations will also feature — the books will be sold for charity. Come and remember Diana’s extraordinary imagination.
More details are available at http://calcifer.co.uk
