Literary Sewing Circle: Author Feature

 

Diana Wynne Jones (born Aug. 16, 1934, London, Eng.—died March 26, 2011, Bristol) was a British fantasy writer of more than 40 books for children, many of which centre on magic or magicians. Jones was the oldest of three sisters and often looked after her siblings— deciding early that she wanted to become a writer, she began writing stories for her sisters when she was 13 years old. Though the majority of her books were written for children, Jones’s first published novel, Changeover (1970), was intended for adults. Despite having penned the novel in 1966, Jones did not embark on her writing career in earnest until all her own children (three boys) were in school. (via Britannica.com)

Her career revived when a Studio Ghibli movie was made of this book, Howl's Moving Castle, which introduced many readers to her novels for the first time. 

When the movie was made, the director Miyazaki was interested in highlighting the anti-war themes of the story, and made a few distinct changes to the original. There are many opinions on the book vs. the movie that you can search out, but this one at Screenrant was entertaining and pretty thorough (lots of ads on the site, however).

There's not a lot that ties her directly to the world of sewing but there are some indications she was familiar with the world of sewing and needlearts. In her own life there were mentions of the importance of clothing and presentation in the world, and in this novel, we get Sophie, who can sew magic into hats and suits; we get Sophie wearing 'mousy' grey when she feels afraid and powerless, we see Howl's flashy suits and the clothing that people in Kingsbury wear as opposed to Porthaven, showing class differences. Sophie's dress that she made for Lettie at the opening of the book also shows her stitching prowess, making this element pretty important in this novel (and sewing/weaving is even more explicitly referenced in another novel, Spellcoats).

Here are some examples. 

In her autobiography, she writes about being a child sent to her mother's Welsh family at the outbreak of WWII:

Life in the manse revolved around Chapel next door. My aunt Muriel rushed in from her house down the road and energetically took us to a dressmaker to be fitted with Sunday clothes. On the way, she suggested, as a way to stop us feeling strange, that we should call her Mummy. Isobel obligingly did so, but I refused on the grounds that she was not our mother – besides, I was preoccupied with a confusion between dressmakers and hairdressers which even an hour of measuring and pinning did not resolve.

The clothes duly arrived: purple dresses with white polka dots and neat meat-coloured coats. Isobel and I had never been dressed the same before and we rather liked it. We wore them to Chapel thereafter...

In an essay on Wynne Jones' children's books, the opening references magical weaving, as shown in her novel Spellcoats: 

“WHEN MAGES WEAVE, what they weave is so.” These words in The Spellcoats, by fantasy writer Diana Wynne Jones, double up as spell and tale: the narrator, Tanaqui, has used her skill to weave them into complex and beautiful rug coats, simultaneously forming the magic that frees her family and land as well as the words of the book itself.

And of course in Howl's Moving Castle, Sophie is an experienced hatmaker and seamstress, who sews magic snugly into the seams of Howl's scarlet and grey suit as she remakes it.  

It's clear that sewing serves as a metaphor for the magical power of making and unmaking the world around the characters, as well as a homely detail that can be funny in parts, too. 

I hope you are inspired to look into Diana Wynne Jones' works and discover some of her other novels -- she never really repeated herself, so while her other books and series are touched with magic too, they are all fresh and different from this one. And you won't soon run out if you do: check out her bibliography!