"First published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten Co, Ltd."--Colophon.

Diana Wynne Jones was born in London in 1934. She grew up amidst the destruction of World War II, and as a result her family moved around a lot as she was growing up, before finally settling in Essex. Not being able to get many books, Jones and her sister made up their own stories, and though Jones was dyslexic, she wrote down her stories anyway. Between the ages of 12 and 14 she filled more than twenty notebooks with two stories. In 1953, Jones began school at St. Anne's College Oxford and attended lectures by J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. After graduation, Jones continued to write, creating plays for children that were performed at the London Arts Theatre. Her first book was published in 1973, and in 1977, her book Charmed Life won the Guardian Award for Children's Books. She was twice runner up for the Carnegie Medal and in 1999 won the Mythopeic Award and the Karl Edward Wagner Award.