Witch's business [Unbound]

Diana Wynne Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1974

Frank and Jess's scheme to earn money by hiring themselves out as revenge seekers seems like a good one until they discover they are in competition with a witch.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Out of print for more than two decades, Diana Wynne Jones's first novel, Witch's Business (1973), makes a welcome comeback. Siblings Jess and Frank start an underground business to help customers seek revenge, after their father cuts off their allowance. But the duo soon learns they're horning in on a real witch's livelihood. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Diana Wynne Jones was raised in the village of Thaxted, in Essex, England. She has been a compulsive storyteller for as long as she can remember enjoying most ardently those tales dealing with witches, hobgoblins, and the like. Ms. Jones lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons and two granddaughters. In Her Own Words...

"I decided to be a writer at the age of eight, but I did not receive any encouragement in this ambition until thirty years later. I think this ambition was fired-or perhaps exacerbated is a better word-by early marginal contacts with the Great, when we were evacuated to the English Lakes during the war. The house we were in had belonged to Ruskin's secretary and had also been the home of the children in the books of Arthur Ransome. One day, finding I had no paper to draw on, I stole from the attic a stack of exquisite flower-drawings, almost certainly by Ruskin himself, and proceeded to rub them out. I was punished for this. Soon after, we children offended Arthur Ransome by making a noise on the shore beside his houseboat. He complained. So likewise did Beatrix Potter, who lived nearby. It struck me then that the Great were remarkably touchy and unpleasant (even if, in Ruskin's case, it was posthumous), and I thought I would like to be the same, without the unpleasantness.

"I started writing children's books when we moved to a village in Essex where there were almost no books. The main activities there were hand-weaving, hand-making pottery, and singing madrigals, for none of which I had either taste or talent. So, in intervals between trying to haunt the church and sitting on roofs hoping to learn to fly, I wrote enormous epic adventure stories which I read to my sisters instead of the real books we did not have. This writing was stopped, though, when it was decided I must be coached to go to University. A local philosopher was engaged to teach me Greek and philosophy in exchange for a dollhouse (my family never did things normally), and I eventually got a place at Oxford.

"At this stage, despite attending lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, I did not expect to be writing fantasy. But that was what I started to write when I was married and had children of my own. It was what they liked best. But small children do not allow you the use of your brain. They used to jump on my feet to stop me thinking. And I had not realized how much I needed to teach myself about writing. I took years to learn, and it was not until my youngest child began school that I was able to produce a book which a publisher did not send straight back.

"As soon as my books began to be published, they started coming true. Fantastic things that I thought I had made up keep happening to me. The most spectacular was Drowned Ammet. The first time I went on a boat after writing that book, an island grew up out of the sea and stranded us. This sort of thing, combined with the fact that I have a travel jinx, means that my life is never dull."

Diana Wynne Jones is the author of many highly praised books for young readers, as well as three plays for children and a novel for adults. She lives in Bristol, England, with her husband, a professor of English at Bristol University. They have three sons.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Unbound: 168 pages
• Publisher: Dutton; 1st edition (1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525430881
• ISBN-13: 978-0525430889
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,494,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not quite the peak of her talent, October 13, 2003

By 

R. M. Fisher "Raye" (New Zealand = Middle Earth!) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Witch's Business (Chrestomanci Books) (Hardcover)

"Witch's Business" (also called "Wilkens' Tooth") is one of Diana Wynne Jones's first published books, and it shows. While those with no knowledge of what comes later in this gifted author's realm of witches, wizards and magic will find this book a pleasant read, those who are already initiated and know what the word "Chrestomanci" means and how a Castle manages to move about a countryside might be a tad disappointed.

Short on pocket money, Frank and Jess decide to open a business known as Own Back, in which they seek revenge on past wrongs for their clients. Secretly they hope to find a way to punish the neighbourhood bully Buster Knell, and so it is a grim task when they find he is their first client. His demand? That they remove a tooth from Vernon Wilkins, the large boy that did the same to him. But this job goes horribly wrong when a simple tooth creates more unwelcome employment for them: two strange little girls who want their house back, Buster Knell's entire gang, and even the strange Biddy Iremonger, who is certainly a witch!

Components of Wynne Jones's style is still intact - her quirky way of speaking (newcomers might be confused at the quite literal 'colouful language' that Buster uses) and her intricate melding of several plots and people. But I feel that had she written it today, there would have been deeper reasoning behind Biddy's revenge tactics, more Own Back business for Frank and Jess, an explanation behind the "good eyes" that Jess is given, and a more sophisicated plot for finally getting rid of the evil witch. However, "Witch's Business" is humourous, interesting, and serious enough for Wynne Jones fans to enjoy and compare with her later books (I saw touches of "Time of the Ghost" and "Black Maria" in the plot) and just as good for new readers to find a new favourite author. They're the lucky ones, gifted with the knowledge that from here, Wynne Jones's work just gets better!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DWJ's first book; not her best but pretty good, July 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Witch's business (Unbound)

Two children start a "revenge" business to make pocket money, unaware that a real-life witch is already running such a business and doesn't appreciate the competition. This is Diana Wynne Jones' first book, and most of the elements of her style are clearly evident. While it doesn't compare to "Charmed Life" or "The Nine Lives of Christopher Chant," it's a fairly good read.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Early DWJ Title, February 17, 2000

By 

"kat_trader" (Cambridge, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witch's business (Unbound)

From the previous review I think this was the book published in the UK as Wilkins Tooth. It's a fun story about two children who run a 'Revenge Service' to make some pocket money. As you would expect in a childrens book the scheme backfires. It reminds me of 'Ogre Downstairs' as it's set in an apparently normal town where extra ordinary events occur. I'm not sure why it's been out of print for so long; many of the issues surrounding some bullies in the story could be helpful to schools today.