Witch's Business

Front Cover
Greenwillow Books, 2002 - Juvenile Fiction - 201 pages
When Jess and Frank's father stops their allowance for four months, desperate measures are necessary. Jess's friends expect her to pay her share for things, of course, and, worse, Frank owes money to the bully Buster Knell. So they decide to start a business. They make a sign: OWN BACK LTD.
REVENGE ARRANGED.
PRICE ACCORDING TO TASK.
ALL DIFFICULT FEATS UNDERTAKEN.
TREASURE HUNTED, ETC.

At first the only response they get is from adults who laugh at them. But before long they find themselves working for their first customer -- Buster Knell, of all people. One thing leads to another leads to another, and soon their business has whirled out of control in ways they never could have imagined. What's more, the local witch, Biddy Iremonger, sees Own Back Ltd. as competition to her business, and when Biddy is angry, there's no end to the trouble she'll cause. . . .

"Witch's Business, Diana Wynne Jones's first novel, has all the humor, action, inventiveness, and surprises that have established her reputation as one of the finest fantasy writers.

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About the author (2002)

Diana Wynne Jones was born in London on August 16, 1934. In 1953, she began school at St. Anne's College Oxford and attended lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. After graduation, she created plays for children that were performed at the London Arts Theatre. Her first book was published in 1973. She wrote over 40 books during her lifetime including Dark Lord of Derkholm, Earwig and the Witch, and the Chrestomanci series. She won numerous awards including the Guardian Award for Children's Books in 1977 for Charmed Life, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in 1984 for Archer's Goon, the Mythopeic Award in 1999, the Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1999, and the Life Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Organization in 2007. Her book Howl's Moving Castle was adapted into an animated film by director Hayao Miyazaki, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. She died from lung cancer on March 26, 2011 at the age of 76.