Synopsis: Charmain Baker is a thoroughly respectable girl; so respectable, in fact, as to be almost entirely useless in any practical capacity. When she is sent to look after her sick uncle’s house, disaster threatens, especially as Great Uncle William is the Royal Wizard Norland, his house is roomier and more convoluted than a London police box and there is a plot afoot to bring down the royal family. Fortunately, help is at hand in the form of the mysterious Sophie and her anarchic household of magical infants and the fire demon Calcifer, but it will take Sophie and her insider’s eye to separate truth and lies and tease out the insidious conspiracy… if only she can find the time to get the laundry done. 

 Review: Diana Wynne Jones makes a long-awaited third visit to the world of Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Air. As in previous volumes, there is a sense in which the heroine – for all her nerve and intelligence – is following a predetermined road, but this never detracts from the reader’s sympathy, nor makes the eventual resolution seem inevitable. While each event in Charmain’s progress may be laid out in advance, this can only be seen in retrospect, and Wynne Jones maintains the suspense of the story throughout.

House of Many Ways follows one of Wynne Jones’ most successful patterns; that of a world where magic is a domestic thing; dangerous in the wrong hands and not quite decent, but not unusual either. It is a theme at which she excels, and House of Many Ways is a fine example of her work. It draws heavily on the characters from Howl’s Moving Castle and might not therefore be suited to win new readers, but for existing fans it is a proper treat.

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2008-07-13