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Dating from long before Harry Potter, this story of young magicians’ adventures still enchants
I’ve actually reread Diana Wynne Jones’s Charmed Life twice in recent months: once, to check it was about the right level to read aloud to my kids, who are nine and six. It was, so then I read it to them. Both times it was equally delightful, and I’m lining it up for a third go now, because I can’t think of anything that would cheer me up more.
Published in 1977, Charmed Life is the first of Wynne Jones’s books about a mysterious, brilliant enchanter known as Chrestomanci, all of which are excellent and unrivalled. This one, about Cat and Gwendolen Chant, two children who are sent to live with the great enchanter after their parents die, won her the Guardian children’s fiction prize. Amid a glorious list of former winners (Goodnight Mr Tom! The Owl Service! The Knife of Never Letting Go!), it’s probably my favourite. Continue reading...