To mark Folio’s 75th anniversary, Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story is published as a magical new edition, beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Marie-Alice Harel and bursting with exquisite design details.
Charmed Life
Illustrated by Alison Bryant
Introduced by Katherine Rundell
Foreword by Neil Gaiman
The first volume of the bewitching ‘Chrestomanci’ series by Diana Wynne Jones. Charmed Life arrives in an explosion of magic in this edition illustrated by Alison Bryant and introduced by Katherine Rundell.
$100.00
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‘If you have not encountered the many worlds of Diana Wynne Jones, I envy you. You have so much to look forward to.’
- Neil Gaiman
A magical school, parallel universes and nine lives hidden in the most unlikely of places. Welcome to the many worlds of 'Chrestomanci', where nothing is quite as it seems. Charmed Life is an anarchic, hilarious tale of magic and mayhem from the fairy godmother of children’s literature, Diana Wynne Jones. For this special edition of a British fantasy classic, artist Alison Bryant has created six exuberant and witty illustrations that bring the magic of Jones’s most celebrated series to life. Every image is awash with colour and character, from freshly summoned giant frogs to Gwendoline’s delightfully disdainful face – and of course Chrestomanci himself, resplendent in a variety of unlikely dressing gowns. This edition also includes two delightful short stories from the world of ‘Chrestomanci’, ‘Warlock at the Wheel’ and ‘The Sage of Theare’. Katherine Rundell, the award-winning author of the modern children’s adventure classic Rooftoppers, has written a new introduction exclusively for this Folio edition, in which she calls Charmed Life ‘one of the finest children’s books ever written’.
Bound in printed and blocked paper
Set in Legacy Serif with Wonder Night as display
272 pages
6 colour illustrations
Black & white illustrated title page and chapter heads
Endpapers and slipcase printed in silver ink
9˝ x 6¼˝
Printed in the UK
Gwendoline Chant is a wildly talented and particularly single-minded young witch, so when she is invited to go and study at the castle of Chrestomanci, she is thrilled to finally be recognised for her achievements. Her brother Cat – shy, obliging, and thoroughly un-magical – is somewhat alarmed to be invited too. What does a boy who can’t even turn buttons into gold pieces to do in a castle stuffed with witches and warlocks? But life in the great enchanter’s castle isn’t what either of the Chants are expecting, with dragons, heists and increasingly chaotic magical pranks around every corner. When Gwendoline herself vanishes, Cat begins to realise that his life has been tied up with secrets since the very beginning, and perhaps only Chrestomanci himself has the answers…
‘Diana Wynne Jones stands out from the crowd, for her humour, her originality and her touching, clever, rollickingly good stories.’
- The Guardian
Charmed Life won the Guardian Book award in 1977 and kicked off a series that was to become one of the best loved in children’s fiction, enchanting children and adults alike with its boisterous, chaotic and deeply British approach to fantasy. In her introduction, author Katherine Rundell describes Jones as ‘a true original’ and it is this vibrant originality that raises the 'Chrestomanci' books above your average wizarding world. Charmed Life is full of surprises, from the nature of Cat’s nickname to the terrible apparitions that Gwendoline summons to disrupt an elegant dinner. With its lush binding design and a slipcase rich with delightfully witchy details, the Folio edition of Charmed Life is glorious to behold – a treat for witches and warlocks of any age.
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