{"id":4935,"date":"2016-09-18T22:43:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T12:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2020-12-23T21:58:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T10:58:27","slug":"howls-moving-castle-by-diana-wynne-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/howls-moving-castle-by-diana-wynne-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Howl\u2019s Moving Castle\u2019 by Diana Wynne Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have had a mixed reaction to the novels of Diana Wynne Jones<\/a> so far. I enjoyed Dogsbody<\/em><\/a>, I thought Charmed Life<\/em> was okay, I loathed Fire and Hemlock<\/em>. I was also a bit put off by DWJ\u2019s fans, some of whom display almost religious levels of devotion to her. This obliges them to not only promote her work assiduously, but also disparage anyone else who\u2019s had the audacity to write children\u2019s fantasy, especially if those writers manage to sell more books than their idol. (I mean, didn\u2019t J. K. Rowling realise<\/em> that Diana Wynne Jones was the only British author ever<\/em> allowed to write about orphans attending magic school?) <\/p>\n

\"'Howl'sHowever, I\u2019ve just finished Howl\u2019s Moving Castle<\/em> and finally understand what DWJ\u2019s fans are going on about, because this book was utterly charming \u2013 funny, clever, warm-hearted and featuring some of the most endearing characters I\u2019ve come across in children\u2019s fantasy. The dreaded Wizard Howl, rumoured to suck the souls from innocent young girls or maybe eat their hearts, turns out to be far less evil than suspected, although with enough flaws to fill a (moving) castle. There\u2019s also Calcifer, his adorably grumpy demon, Michael, the anxious apprentice and Sophie, the valiant heroine placed under a curse by a wicked witch. The author has a lot of fun playing with fantasy conventions \u2013 seven-league boots, magical disguises, mysterious spells, supernatural battles, kings sending magicians on dangerous quests and so on \u2013 although my favourite part was when the magical world collided with the real one. In one chapter, Sophie and Michael accompany Howl to his original home in the \u201cland of Wales\u201d. Sophie is baffled by the clothes (Howl dons a baggy jacket with the strange inscription \u201cWELSH RUGBY\u201d) and by the technology, which includes magical boxes with moving pictures, the boxes growing \u201con long, floppy white stalks that appeared to be rooted in the wall\u201d. Throughout, the plot twists and turns in a very inventive and complicated manner, but it all ends as it should, with evil vanquished and the good living happily ever after. <\/p>\n

The edition I read had some excellent illustrations by Tim Stevens (the scarecrow is especially creepy) and a lovely cover with Howl looking supernaturally handsome and his castle looming darkly in the background. But then I remembered this book was made into a much-loved animated film and went looking for the trailer<\/a> and it looks TERRIBLE. The castle is all wrong! Everyone speaks American! The story looks more like a Disney princess romance than anything else! It doesn\u2019t seem like the sort of film that even mentions<\/em> \u201cWELSH RUGBY\u201d. However, if any of you have seen it and think it worth watching, I may give it a try. Also, if you have any recommendations for Diana Wynne Jones books that are just like Howl\u2019s Moving Castle<\/em> but nothing like Fire and Hemlock<\/em>, I would be very interested to hear them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have had a mixed reaction to the novels of Diana Wynne Jones so far. I enjoyed Dogsbody, I thought Charmed Life was okay, I loathed Fire and Hemlock. I was also a bit put off by DWJ\u2019s fans, some of whom display almost religious levels of devotion to her. This obliges them to not … Continue reading \u2018Howl\u2019s Moving Castle\u2019 by Diana Wynne Jones<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,293,18],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-4935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-childrens-books","category-my-favourite-books","tag-diana-wynne-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4935"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6177,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4935\/revisions\/6177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}