Diana Wynne Jones

'Only thin, weak thinkers despise fairy stories. Each one has a true, strange fact hidden in it, which you can find if you look.” - Fire and Hemlock

Diana Wynne Jones died on 26 March 2011.

I would be poorer without her books and to this day, they're my favourite rainy day read. (Actually, they're among my favourite reads in any kind of weather.)

The best authors are like friends. I read Howl's Moving castle when I was 18 and laughed non-stop. I marvelled at how some English lady knew all puzzles and insecurities of being an eldest sister - until I found out she was - like me - the eldest of three.

After Howl's, I bought everything I could of hers. I got through Dogsbody which I loved, all of the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark Quartet... almost everything. And I loved almost all of it. They were funny, wise, sharp as nails, rich with mythology and replete with common sense. She wrote the kind of books I had always longed to read. Plus, her first book came out in 1981, a good 2 years before Pratchett's first so really, she was the original funny British fantasy writer. AND not to mention she was taught by Tolkien and CS Lewis - with a pedigree like that - how could she be anything but fantastic? (pardon the pun)

I don't know what else to say except that she was my favourite author - bar none - and the reading public won't be seeing the likes of her again.