Eva Ibbotson

Bookseller's Press Release :

Eva Ibbotson, the much-loved and celebrated children’s author, died peacefully yesterday at her home in Newcastle. She was 85.

‘Eva Ibbotson weaves a magic like no other. Once enchanted, always enchanted.’ – Michael Morpurgo

Born in Vienna, Austria, which she noted was ‘a very beautiful city ringed by green hills, and a wonderful place for music and the theatre’, Eva Ibbotson came to Britain in 1934 at the age of eight with her family, refugees from Hitler. They were ‘a bedraggled party consisting of my fey, poetic mother, my irascible grandmother and confused aunt (my father – as was customary in my family – was somewhere else)’. Eva was the author of many magical, rich and evocative adventures – over 20 novels for children and adults. She was especially well-known for her books’ fantastic creatures, outrageous characters, and brilliant storytelling – all the product of her famously lively imagination and astute observation of human foibles. In a career stretching over 35 years, Eva’s novels touched the hearts and souls of generations of children (and their parents). She wrote with immense wit, economy and elegance – and her deceptively funny, engaging books always pack an emotional punch, whether she was writing for eight-year-olds or young teens. Eva’s own fierce intelligence, self-deprecating humour, and wonderful quick wittedness are reflected in and will live on through her books.

See also the posts in this blog about Eva Ibbotson's reflections on libraries, and about her latest book, The Ogre of Oglefort - recently shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize 2010.
http://libraryzest.blogspot.com/search/label/Eva%20Ibbotson

The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson

And another wonderful book - the Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson, published by Macmillan, not in paperback until next year and not yet in the National Library collection, but I'd say this is one to buy in hardback for all primary school libraries... It would be a fun book to read-aloud for mid / upper primary.

Here is a link to a well-written review that the book deserves, by Amanda Craig in The Times
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article7105078.ece

and here is the opening chapter, from the Pan Macmillan website :
http://www.panmacmillan.com/extracts/displayPage.asp?PageID=8133

Eva Ibbotson is another clever, prolific, rewarding author like Geraldine McCaughrean, and I love too what she has said about libraries and how much they have meant to her - I did a post about it earlier this year... http://libraryzest.blogspot.com/search/label/Eva%20Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson on libraries

A heartwarming column by the wonderful writer Eva Ibbotson - here she tells of the role her local library played in her life as a young refugee from Vienna during WWII -


I was eight years old when I came to Britain as a refugee - and was not particularly grateful. Mostly this was because after years and years of being a sheep coming to the manger, or a grazing cow, I had at last landed the part of the Virgin Mary in the nativity play at my convent school in Vienna. And then ... Hitler.

We came to London in 1934, a bedraggled party consisting of my fey, poetic mother, my irascible grandmother and confused aunt, and rented rooms in a dilapidated house in Belsize Park which, in those days, was a seedy, run-down part of the city. The house was full of suddenly impoverished refugees facing exile. On every floor were lonely and muddled professors, doctors and lawyers, mostly from German-speaking countries. I had no friends, no school yet, nowhere to play.

Then, one day, waking up the hill towards Hampstead to do some shopping for my grandmother, I came across a building with an open door. I went inside. The room was very quiet and full of books. At a desk sat a woman with fair hair and I waited for her to tell me to go away. But she only smiled at me. Then she said: 'Would you like to join the library?'

My English was still poor but I understood her. In particular, I understood the word 'join' which seemed to me to be a word of unsurpassed beauty. I told her that I had no money and she (her name was Miss Pole ) said: 'It is free.'

Read more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jul/09/fiction.features

Do read her books if you haven't - The Dragonfly Pool is one of my favourites. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/i/eva-ibbotson/

Here is another interview with Eva Ibbotson : http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/aug/25/booksforchildrenandteenagers.familyandrelationships

This article was republished as part of the campaign to encourage adults back to public libraries - see http://www.lovelibraries.co.uk/