![]() ![]() When I was a teenager, my life was empty of a lot of things I almost take for granted now. She writes about fantasy, children’s literature, non-fiction, cult TV and more at Things Mean a Lot and also contributes to Lady Business. She works for a large public library system and has a particular interest in reader’s development work with young people. ![]() I believe Fire and Hemlock to be Diana Wynne Jones’s masterpiece - and Ana, who shares my high opinion of it, is here today to share her story about how she first encountered this marvelous and multi-faceted book. ![]() Not a retelling, but a sort of variation on themes introduced in the ballads of “Tam Lin” and “Thomas the Rhymer,” it brilliantly but unobtrusively mines the depths of folklore and myth while telling a very modern story, one in which the act of storytelling itself is central. It begins (after a brief prologue) when ten-year-old Polly accidentally stumbles into an ominous Halloween funeral at a nearby manor, and makes a life-changing connection to a man named Tom Lynn and it ends on the same date nine years later, after Polly has learned much more about Tom and the sinister significance of that event. To kick off Witch Week, we’re taking a look at Fire and Hemlock (1984), a book in which today’s date plays a very important role. ![]()
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