Howl’s Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones
£7.99
Mr B's review
“Chapter One: In which Sophie talks to hats.”
Everyone’s seen the film – not everyone has read the book. In fact not everyone even seems to realise it was a book in the first place, which is a travesty, because it’s an absolute delight, and done very differently. Howl in the film is this distant, beautiful man, and in the books he’s a player and a gadabout who runs around in a Welsh rugby jersey cursing the Witch of the Wastes. He does still have a meltdown over Sophie dying his hair though.
The first page alone is a work of such genius. For fans of fairytale retellings, this was one of the first, and remains one of the best. Creative, whimsical and joyous.
Description
‘Quite simply the best writer of magic there is’ Neil Gaiman
‘Truly magical … Guaranteed to leave you gasping’ The Bookseller
‘She is the best writer of magical fantasy for children’ Evening Standard
In this beloved modern classic, young Sophie Hatter from the land of Ingary catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell…
Deciding she has nothing more to lose, Sophie makes her way to the moving castle that hovers on the hills above her town, Market Chipping. But the castle belongs to the dreaded Wizard Howl, whose appetite, they say, is satisfied only by the souls of young girls…
There Sophie meets Michael, Howl’s apprentice, and Calcifer the fire demon, with whom she agrees a pact. Her entanglements with Calcifer, Howl and Michael and her quest to break her curse come alive with Diana Wynne Jones’s unique combination of magic, humour and imagination.
From one of the most beloved, bestselling and award-winning fantasy writers of all time.
Publisher Review
“Imaginative and terribly funny ”
Michael Morpurgo
THE TELEGRAPH – 100 Best Books a Child Should Read
“Wit and humor glint from the pages”
THE HORN BOOK
Praise for Diana Wynne Jones
“…Her hallmarks include laugh-aloud humour, plenty of magic and imaginative array of alternate worlds. Yet, at the same time, a great seriousness is present in all of her novels, a sense of urgency that links Jones’s most outrageous plots to her readers’ hopes and fears…”
Publishers Weekly
“Diana Wynne Jones ought to be crowned with coloured garlands because she is the best writer of magical fantasy for children in this country ” Evening Standard
“Diana Wynne Jones could teach Stephen King and JK Rowling a thing or two … [she] has a skill for inserting just the right amount of detail in her written words, leaving you satiated but not stuffed.” SFX
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