Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week

Halloween is the time when many people's thoughts turn to witches.

I suddenly remembered reading Diana Wynne Jones's Witch Week (1982) many years ago; I decided to take another look to see if it contains any article-inspiring content.

This little book for children combines magic-related fantasy with boarding-school life. While there is little to say about the main story and there isn't much material suitable for direct quotation, there are still a few elements that inspire commentary.

The Witch Week of the title, a time of many strange incidents, begins a few days before Halloween, which makes the book very suitable for the occasion. 

The cover on this edition is just right for Halloween:

Keeping the balance

A previous article mentions the importance of balancing depressing books with reading material that lifts the spirits.

Witch Week contains both cruelty and humour; scenes that are very painful to read because they involve humiliation and bullying are balanced by witty dialogue and descriptions of amusing incidents.

The power of hate again
Witch Week provides supporting evidence for the proposition that hatred can sometimes be helpful. 

Charles Morgan is a loner and odd one out among the pupils. He lists in his journal everything that he hates, which includes the school buildings and at one point all the people in the school!

This hatred helps to keep him going.

Witches in the air for Halloween

Pictures of Terry Pratchett's witches marked the occasion of Halloween 2019. 

This year's All Hallows' Eve is a very suitable time of year for a little more light witch material. 

Witches Abroad, which has been mentioned in connection with snakes, is one of the funniest of the Witches of Lancre series. This quotation is typical:

“On nights such as this, witches are abroad. Well, not actually abroad. They don't like the food and you can't trust the water and the shamans always hog the deckchairs.”

However, when duty calls the three witches take to the air for some long journeys involving 'foreign parts':

This special edition of Equal Rites reminds me of a poem:

This evocative little poem by Walter de la Mare makes the witches seem like a colony of swarming bats:

The Ride-by-Nights

Up on their brooms the Witches stream,
Crooked and black in the crescent's gleam,
One foot high, and one foot low,
Bearded, cloaked, and cowled, they go.
'Neath Charlie's Wane they twitter and tweet,
And away they swarm 'neath the Dragon's feet,
With a whoop and a flutter they swing and sway,
And surge pell-mell down the Milky Way.
Between the legs of the glittering Chair
They hover and squeak in the empty air.
Then round they swoop past the glimmering Lion
To where Sirius barks behind huge Orion;
Up, then, and over to wheel amain
Under the silver, and home again.

Witches’ pictures for Halloween

Today is Halloween, a time when witches are abroad.

It is a good time to remember Terry Pratchett, who made a great contribution, both entertaining and informational, to witch lore. There are many quotations from his works on here, and there are still more to come.

Here we have a memorable quotation from Wintersmith: