| Eva Ibbotson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner 21 January 1925 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 20 October 2010 (aged 85) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | English |
| Period | 1965-2010 |
| Genres | Children's literature, romantic fiction, drama |
Eva Ibbotson (21 January 1925 – 20 October 2010[1]) was an Austrian-born British novelist, known for her award-winning children's books as well as her novels for adults - several of which have been successfully reissued for the young adult readership in recent years.
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Eva Ibbotson was born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner in Vienna, Austria in 1925 to non-practising Jewish parents[2]. Her father, Berthold Wiesner, was a physiologist, her mother, Anna Gmeyner, a successful novelist and playwright who had worked with Bertolt Brecht and written film scripts for G. W. Pabst.[3] Ibbotson's parents separated in 1928 and what followed was a " very cosmopolitan, sophisticated and quite interesting, but also very unhappy childhood, always on some train and wishing to have a home" as Eva Ibbotson would recall later.[4] Her father took up a university lectureship in Edinburgh, while her mother, who had moved from Berlin to Paris in 1933, eventually settled in Belsize Park in North London in 1934, when her work was banned by Hitler, putting a sudden end to her successful writing career. Eva Ibbotson joined her mother in Belsize Park and other family members from Vienna followed and escaped the worst of the Nazi regime, which had already affected the family. The experience of fleeing Vienna was a strong thread throughout Ibbotson's life and work.[5]
Eva Ibbotson attended Dartington Hall School which she later fictionalised as Delderton Hall in her novel The Dragonfly Pool (2008). Originally she intended to become a physiologist like her father, earning an undergraduate degree from Bedford College, London in 1945 before studying at Cambridge University. But the thought of spending her life conducting experiments on animals appalled her. Instead she met her future husband, Alan Ibbotson, a university professor and entomologist at Cambridge University. They married in 1947 and Eva Ibbotson turned her back on science with some relief.[6] They moved to Jesmond/Newcastle where they raised their family, before Ibbotson gratuated with a diploma in education in 1965 from the University of Durham. She briefly became a teacher in the 1960s before embarking on her writing career.[7]
Ibbotson was widowed with three sons and a daughter. She died at her home in Newcastle on 20 October 2010, during post-production of a film based on her novel The Great Ghost Rescue and the film development of her bestselling novel The Morning Gift.
Ibbotson began writing with the television drama Linda Came Today (1962[8]) and published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue in 1975.
Children's Books
Ibbotson authored numerous books including The Secret of Platform 13, The Star of Kazan, Journey to the River Sea, Which Witch?, Island of the Aunts, and Dial-a-Ghost. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Journey to the River Sea, and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature. The books are imaginative and humorous, and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite the fact that she disliked thinking about the supernatural, and created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things. Some of the books, particularly Journey to the River Sea, also reflect Ibbotson's love of nature. Ibbotson wrote this book in honor of her husband (who had died just before she wrote it), a former naturalist. The book had been in her head for years before she actually wrote it. Ibbotson had said she disliked "financial greed and a lust for power" and often created antagonists in her books who have these characteristics.
Her love of Austria is evident in works such as The Star of Kazan, A Song For Summer & Magic Flutes / The Reluctant Heiress. These books, set primarily in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love of nature and all things natural.
Novels
Although she will be most remembered for her children's books, Ibbotson was also famous for several works of fiction for adults that have recently been successfully republished for young adults. This was to Eva Ibbotson's surprise, as she referred to them as adult books, even though they are now also incredibly popular with teenage audiences. Several of these books have been published in other languages with different titles.
Dramas
Ibbotson's writing took a new direction in 1992, when she began to move away from romantic novels to write two acclaimed dramas, which are set in Europe at the time of WWII and reflect her own experience of the time. The first book The Morning Gift (1993) became a Bestseller, followed by Ibbotson's last novel for adults A Song For Summer(1997).
Her books for adults/young adults include:
The similarity of "Platform 9 3/4" in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books to Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book, has been commented on. Amanda Craig is one example of a journalist who has written about the similarities: "Ibbotson would seem to have at least as good a case for claiming plagiarism as the American author currently suing J. K. Rowling [Nancy Stouffer], but unlike her, Ibbotson says she would 'like to shake her by the hand. I think we all borrow from each other as writers'."[9] See Harry Potter influences and analogues.
Carnegie Medal shortlist, British Library Association, 1978, for Which Witch?, and 2001, for Journey to the River Sea;
Best Romantic Novel of the Year Published in England, Romantic Novelists Association, 1983, for Magic Flutes;
Smarties Prize Shortlist, and Best Books designation, School Library Journal, 1998, for The Secret of Platform 13;
Guardian Children's Fiction Award runner-up, and Whitbread Children's Book of the Year award shortlist, and Smarties Prize shortlist, all 2001, all for Journey to the River Sea.
The Star of Kazan was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2005.
Nestle Children's Book Prize Silver Award for Star of Kazan.
Nestle Children's Book Prize Golden Award for Journey to River Sea
In 1962, Ibbotson wrote Linda Came Today for television; in 1978, she also wrote Der Große Karpfen Ferdinand und andere Weihnachtsgeschichten for German television.
Currently, Enda Walsh is adapting Island of the Aunts for a feature film.[10] An adaptation of The Great Ghost Rescue is also in production,[11] and Gail Gilchriest is adapting The Haunting of Hiram C. Hopgood.[12] The bestselling drama The Morning Gift is currently being developed.
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