In last week’s episode Gary and I discussed the work of the late Diana Wynne Jones. Our discussion raised comments from several people that we’d not done justice to Jones, and so we invited Farah Mendlesohn (author of Diana Wynne Jones: Children’s Literature and the Fantastic Tradition) and author and critic Tansy Rayner Roberts to join us to discuss Jones’ work, legacy and place in the science fiction and fantasy field. We’d like to thank both of them for joining us in the pod.
I want you to know how much I enjoy your podcast. So much in fact that I just went back and downloaded your first 30 so I can see what Ive missed. Please keep up the excellent discussions.
Delighted you’re enjoying the podcast. We intend to keep going and are delighted people have enjoyed them so far.
This episode of the podcast lays out why people should read Diana Wynne Jones. Well done!
A great episode. I had a half formed notion of Diana Wynne Jones as a children’s author – only for young young’uns. Reading Dark Lord of Derkholm out of the my library’s young adult section I’m fascinated to find that kids are up for a fantasy world under the boot of a corporate type that forces the creative artists to churn out the same old rote adventures for tourists again and again. Who knew kids where so into razor sharp commentary on the fantasy publishing scene? There is a lot more in the novel than this, but I’m only a 100 pages in so I’ll spare you.