the journey to the river sea by eva ibbotson

But after my husband died and I developed this wretched illness, I didn't feel up to doing another funny book for a while. 'When I settle down to write or even read a book, the idea that it might all end miserably is something I can't bear. So what was it that attracted her to this genre? 'I must have happy endings, whether I write for children or grown-ups,' she says. But nothing came of it.' Her father also wrote a classic monograph on the maternal behaviour of rats, 'which he found, I think, more satisfactory than the maternal behaviour of my mother.'Īlthough her romantic novels for adults have sold well, and are packed with interesting detail about the 20th-century émigré experience, they have tended to escape critical notice. 'They used to sit in different rooms, visualising hot water bottles and so forth,' she remembers, 'and then try to transfer the image to the other through the wall. Ibbotson's father, meanwhile, had become interested in extra-sensory perception, working with the Cambridge psychologist R H Thouless. This story, about five children born in Germany on the same day, was reissued in 2003 by the excellent Persephone Books. The school, with all its occasionally wacky ideas, is recreated in her 1967 novel A Song for Summer.īack in Belsize Park, Ibbotson's mother wrote her best-known novel, Manja, in 1938.

But the friendly atmosphere was exactly what I was looking for.' She still remembers teachers and pupils with great affection. 'I was wearing an embroidered Austrian dress and white ankle socks, so I rather stood out from all the other, universally dressed-down pupils.

It was presided over by the determinedly informal W B Currie, who was startled to be greeted by Eva with a full curtsey at their first meeting. The best of these, Which Witch? and The Secret of Platform 13, had distinctly Harry Potter-ish overtones well before that young hero first flourished his wand in print.Įva was sent to Dartington Hall, the progressive boarding school in Devon. She has also written romantic adult novels, better known in Germany and America but still with a loyal following over here, and seven jokey books for nine-to-11 year olds. The Star of Kazan, out this month from Macmillan (£12.99), should pick up more prizes. Her last children's book, Journey to the River Sea, won the Gold Medal of the Smarties Book Prize for 2003. Now aged 79, Eva Ibbotson is writing better than ever.

The journey to the river sea by eva ibbotson