My favourite book as a kid: Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
(The Guardian Books Blog)

Dating from long before Harry Potter, this story of young magicians´ adventures still enchantsI´ve actually reread Diana Wynne Jones´s Charmed Life twice in recent months: once, to check it was about the right level to read aloud to my kids, who are nine and six. It was, so then I read it to them. Both times it was equally delightful, and I´m lining it up for a third go now, because I can´t think of anything that would cheer me up more.Published in 1977, Charmed Life is the first of Wynne Jones´s books about a mysterious, brilliant enchanter known as Chrestomanci, all of which are excellent and unrivalled. This one, about Cat and Gwendolen Chant, two children who are sent to live with the great enchanter after their parents die, won her the Guardian children´s fiction prize. Amid a glorious list of former winners (Goodnight Mr Tom! The Owl Service! The Knife of Never Letting Go!), it´s probably my favourite.`Someone´s been opening my letters,´ said Gwendolen. `And I don´t care who it is, but I´m not having it! Do you hear?´Cat gasped at the way she spoke. Chrestomanci seemed perplexed. `How are you not having it?´ he said. Continue reading...