OH NO!

Diana Wynne Jones passed away yesterday. This is really heartbreaking. This woman had spent decades keeping up a high level of literacy and imagination in fantasy and young adult fiction, while nobody noticed or praised her as she deserved, only to have the angelic upstart JK Rowling turn up and just draw all the attention. I think that on the whole JKR is a better greater writer, but this does not mean that DWJ's craftsmanship, wit and invention did not deserve praise and recognition. At the very least, she ought to have got the literary recognition that the likes of Philip Pullman did. If it wasn't that her work got the sublime compliment of a Hayao Miyazaki film adaptation, this would be another instance of there being no justice.

Neil Gaiman paid her a magnificent and deserved elogium.