Stella Paskins has been a DWJ fan for years. So, as commissioning children's editor for HarperCollins in London, UK, Stella couldn't believe her luck when she found out that the rights to most of Diana's books were available.

Picture shows from left to right: Pete Rowley, from the studio where Mixed Magics was recorded; Stella Paskins; Anthony Head (Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Photo © Garrick Hagon, director of the Mixed Magics tape, from the Story Circle. Read on for the story of the photo

"I immediately suggested to HarperCollins that we snap them up, and I was delighted when they agreed. Then I went to meet Diana at her agent's. I felt quite a lot of trepidation - meeting Diana for the first time but in a business sense, not as a fan. I was there representing HarperCollins, not myself, so whatever I felt about desperately wanting to produce Diana's books, I had to stay objective about it.

"What I wanted to do as a children's editor was to please people like me, and to get a whole brand new audience of people who would grow up adoring Diana's books. But I also felt some trepidation because I wasn't even sure how Diana would feel about having nearly all her work under one roof."

Luckily for us, Diana liked the idea, and under the children's fantasy imprint Collins Voyager, Stella has now put nearly all Diana's children's books back into print. The only ones missing from her plans are the Dalemark quartet, which had already been taken by Oxford University Press, and The Ogre Downstairs, which was not yet available.

SALES FIGURES

And HarperCollins must be pleased, too. 500,000 copies of Diana's books have left the bookshops since Stella launched them with the Chrestomanci series - including the new story collection Mixed Magics - in May 2000. Most of that half a million are Chrestomanci books, but all the others are also doing encouragingly well.

"We have loads of feedback from bookshops," Stella says. "The HarperCollins salesforce had an amazing reception, comments like: 'Good, it's about time' and 'DWJ should never have been out of print'. It was very encouraging all round.

"The whole team in the HarperCollins Children's division all worked hard to support, sell and promote Diana - designers, production team, marketing and publicity, and sales. And now we find Diana is a global phenomenon. The editions are also available in Japanese, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Finnish. And, there'll soon be copies in Greek, Hebrew and Hungarian. Diana is also proving very popular in Australia."

SPECIAL EDITIONS

As well as just making the books available again after years out of print, Stella has also introduced special editions: the Chrestomanci series box set, the Charmed Life 'classic' edition, and audio-tapes. Astute fans will have noted the reader of Black Maria and other books, Ursula Jones, and wondered at her similarity to a picture of Diana and her sisters in the Picture Gallery. Yes, she is Diana's actress sister.

I asked Stella why she herself likes Diana Wynne Jones' books.

"I found her when I was in my late teens, and I've been reading her ever since. When you read her books, it's like she's writing just for you, so when I was a teenager her books struck an immediate chord, the way they approach all the problems of growing up and into the world. Her books are so real. I remember I was reading Charmed Life on a train, and when I looked up, I'd missed my stop. It was Diana's travel jinx striking again. And after reading The Lives of Christopher Chant I couldn't eat salmon for two years."

What about your own favourite book?

"It's very difficult to pick one favourite out of Diana's books, because they are all so different. But, Fire and Hemlock is the one that I come back to again and again. I really appreciate the whole 'what if' atmosphere of the book, the 'what's real and what isn't' question. And, I've always been in love with Thomas Lynn. Diana writes such good men. Sometimes I bawl my eyes out at the end, and sometimes I feel uplifted."

And what are your future plans?

WORLD BOOK DAY SPECIAL

"There is going to be a very special publication for World Book Day on March 14th. It's going to be Stealer of Souls, the new Chrestomanci story which appeared in Mixed Magics, and will be available for just £1. There'll be 300,000 copies in the UK, and a separate Australian edition. In the UK, every child is given a £1 book token on World Book Day, so they can either put their token towards a more expensive book, or use it for a whole special edition like this."

DIANA'S PUBLIC APPEARANCES

As a further sign of HarperCollins confidence, to help promote World Book Day, Diana Wynne Jones is going to be doing an interview on the London Eye - the massive ferris wheel which overlooks central London. A trip round the Eye is not quick, so some lucky audience is going to Diana to themselves for nearly an hour. Later on March 14th from 6-7.30pm, Diana will be talking about her books at Heffer's bookshop, Cambridge. Tickets for this will need to be booked in advance.

'GILES' TO READ MIXED MAGICS

"Another exciting part of our future plans is the audio-book of Mixed Magics," Stella said. "There's a new reader for this one, who couldn't be more appropriate, since he's best known as the man who has a library of magic books. It's Anthony Head, who plays Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He does it perfectly, and it will be available in September. By the end of this year we'll have reprinted everything we've got the rights to, and we certainly plan to keep them all on the shelves. And after that? Well, we'll just have to see what next year brings . . ."

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Interview by Meredith. The full publishing schedule is available on the News page