The house's single door can lead to almost any place - from other rooms like the kitchen, to faraway places like the Royal Palace, and even other time periods. Though she is supposed to clean up the mess Great-Uncle William has left the house in, Charmain knows next to nothing about magic, and yet she seems to work it in the most unexpected way. When she suddenly ends up looking after the tiny cottage of her ill Great Uncle William she seems happy for the adventure, but the easy task of house-sitting is complicated by the fact that Great-Uncle William is also the Royal Wizard Norland and his magical house bends space and time. She has spent her days with her nose in a book, never learning how to do even the smallest household chores.

The story is set in the same world as Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air.Ĭharmain Baker has led a respectable, sheltered life. Neil Gaiman called her ‘the best writer of Magic there is’.House of Many Ways is a young adult fantasy novel written by Diana Wynne Jones, first published in 2008. Jones’s numerous awards include the Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction, two Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards and a Life Achievement Award at the World Fantasy Convention 2007. It broke all box-office records in Japan at the time and was nominated for an Oscar. In 2004 Howl’s Moving Castle was made into an animated film by Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli, Japan. Among Jones’s best-loved books are the Chrestomanci series and Howl’s Moving Castle (The Folio Society, 2019) and its two sequels. Her magical adventures have enthralled children and adults ever since. She never ceased writing, and from 1973 onwards published many titles, which have been released worldwide in 30 languages. She and her two sisters were deprived of books but, armed with a vivid imagination and an insatiable appetite for stories, Jones wrote them herself to read to her sisters. Her family moved frequently, finally settling in rural Essex. Diana Wynne Jones had an unsettled childhood against the background of the Second World War.

Howl's moving castle house of many ways