The Chrestomanci Series: Entire Collection Books 1-7
Welcome to the worlds of Chrestomanci, where magic is as common as mathematics and anything can happen… an exclusive ebook collection of the entire seven book series by the award-winning Diana Wynne Jones.Welcome to the worlds of Chrestomanci, where magic is as common as mathematics and anything can happen… an exclusive ebook collection of the entire seven book series by the award-winning Diana Wynne Jones.Featuring the magical and enduring characters of Gwendolen and Christopher Chant, and many more, this collection brings the stories of the world of Chrestomanci together for the first time.Winner of numerous accolades including the Guardian Award, these stories have been loved by generations of children’s and adults and Diana Wynne Jones was hailed by Neil Gaiman as ‘the best writer of magic there is.’
Читать The Chrestomanci Series: Entire Collection Books 1-7 онлайн беплатно
THE CHRESTOMANCI SERIES: ENTIRE COLLECTION BOOKS 1-7
Charmed Life
The Magicians of Caprona
Witch Week
The Lives of Christopher Chant
Mixed Magics
Conradâs Fate
The Pinhoe Egg
Diana Wynne Jones
Charmed Life. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1977
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007393930
Version 1
The Magicians of Caprona. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1980
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007369096
Version 1
Witch Week. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1982
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007369102
Version 1
The Lives of Christopher Chant. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1988
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007389018
Version 1
Mixed Magics. collection © Diana Wynne Jones 2000
Warlock at the Wheel © Diana Wynne Jones 1984 Carol Oneirâs Hundreth Dream © Diana Wynne Jones 1986 The Sage of Theare © Diana Wynne Jones 1982 Stealer of Souls © Diana Wynne Jones 2000 Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007389025
Version 1
Conradâs Fate. Copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 2005
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2005
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007383511
Version 1
The Pinhoe Egg. Copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 2006
Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2006
Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007349951
Version 1
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content or written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2013 ISBN: 9780007537921
Version: 2018-12-03
Contents
For Claire, Nicholas and Frances
Contents
Cat Chant admired his elder sister Gwendolen. She was a witch. He admired her and he clung to her. Great changes came about in their lives and left him no one else to cling to.
The first great change came about when their parents took them out for a day trip down the river in a paddle steamer. They set out in great style, Gwendolen and her mother in white dresses with ribbons, Cat and his father in prickly blue serge Sunday suits. It was a hot day. The steamer was crammed with other people in holiday clothes, talking, laughing, eating whelks with thin slices of white bread and butter, while the paddle boat steam organ wheezed out popular tunes so that no one could hear themselves talk.
In fact the steamer was too crowded and too old. Something went wrong with the steering. The whole laughing, whelk-eating Sunday-dressed crowd was swept away in the current from the weir. They hit one of the posts which were supposed to stop people being swept away, and the paddle steamer, being old, simply broke into pieces. Cat remembered the organ playing and the paddles beating the blue sky. Clouds of steam screamed from broken pipes and drowned the screams from the crowd, as every single person aboard was swept away through the weir.
It was a terrible accident. The papers called it the Saucy Nancy Disaster. The ladies in their clinging skirts were quite unable to swim. The men in tight blue serge were very little better off. But Gwendolen was a witch, so she could not drown. And Cat, who flung his arms around Gwendolen when the boat hit the post, survived too. There were very few other survivors.
The whole country was shocked by it. The paddle boat company and the town of Wolvercote between them paid for the funerals. Gwendolen and Cat were given heavy black clothes at public expense, and rode behind the procession of hearses in a carriage pulled by black horses with black plumes on their heads. The other survivors rode with them. Cat looked at them and wondered if they were witches and warlocks, but he never found out. The Mayor of Wolvercote had set up a Fund for the survivors. Money poured in from all over the country. All the other survivors took their share and went away to start new lives elsewhere. Only Cat and Gwendolen were left and, since nobody could discover any of their relations, they stayed in Wolvercote.
