the circumstances that shaped her and her own understanding and vision of who she was and what she did. It is ferociously intelligent, astonishingly readable and, as with so much that Diana Wynne Jones did, she makes each thing she writes, each explanation for why the world is as it is, look so easy. From the Foreword by Neil Gaiman Reflections On the Magic of Writing collects twenty-eight pieces -- mainly essays, lectures and papers -- that Diana Wynne Jones wrote between 1978 and 2008 and presents them chronologically. In addition to the foreword by Neil Gaiman, Reflections also includes an introduction by Charlie Butler and a moving interview he conducted with her in February 2011, when her illness was quite advanced, and two pieces written by her sons after her death. But as interesting as this supplemental material is, of course that what makes Reflections so great are Diana's own pieces. Reading them is like getting to know her and to spend time with her, and the person you glimpse in these writings is exactly the person you'd have imagined from her books. Diana Wynne Jones comes across as fiercely, almost intimidatingly intelligent; except, as Neil Gaiman so well puts it, she makes every insight or perfectly worded comment look so easy. There's also her wonderful sense of humour, which, much like in her fiction, she generously intermingles with serious points. There's a certain amount of repetition in Reflections , as she herself warns readers in the introduction, but