The castle continues to move

I was taken by surprise, a week or so ago, by a big bright advertisement filling the whole of the back page of my newspaper. I don't usually register the kind of ad that shows a model gazing off into the middle distance, but this one had the words "Howl's Moving Castle" right across the top. "Oh, yes," said durham_rambler as if this was the most natural thing in the world, "they are all through the paper." They were, too: Loewe were spending a lot of money to promote their collaboration with Studio Ghibli on a range of Howl-themed clothing and accessories.

I find this utterly mystifying. But it did serve to jog my conscience over a long overdue post-in-progress which I have been promising (if only to myself) ever since Steepholm's talk about the film adaptation set me re-reading the three books in which the wizard appears.

This re-read set me thinking about two things, one very general and one very specific. The general one is that no-one does sequels like Diana Wynne Jones. I know there are readers who always want more about their favourite characters, and I'm not saying I don't ever want that: but if I've enjoyed a book, I'm curious to know what else the author is going to do. With DWJ, it's always the unexpected. Take the Chrestmanci series - if 'series' is the word for a collection of narratives with different characters, set in different worlds (and where the nearest thing to a conventional sequel is actually a prequel). And don't get me started on Dalemark...

( Sequels the Diana Wynne Jones way... )

Sequel or no, Castle in the Air reminded me less of Howl's Moving Castle than of two other books. One of them was no great surprise, but the other... ( And they were... )

"Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin."