Diana Wynne Jones Has Died

Science-fiction writer Diana Wynne Jones (pictured, via) has passed away. She was 76-years-old.

Jones wrote several bestselling children’s books including Chrestomanci, Castle, and the Magids series. The first novel in the Castle series, Howl’s Moving Castle was adapted by filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki into an Oscar-nominated animation movie. Throughout her writing career, she also published picture books, short story collections, and fiction for adults.

Here’s a tribute from Neil Gaiman on his site: “She adopted me when I was a 24 year old writer for magazines of dubious respectability, and spent the next 25 years being proud of me as I made art that she liked (and, sometimes, I didn’t. She’d tell me what she thought, and her opinions and criticism were brilliant and precise and honest, and if she said ‘Yee-ees. I thought you made a bit of a mess of that one,’ then I probably had, so when she really liked something it meant the world to me). As an author she was astonishing.”

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