A collection of three short stories: "Chair Person" (an old armchair comes to life with "a sofa opinion of himself"), "The Four Grannies" (four grandmothers converge on a boy who has invented a wish-granting machine), and "Who Got Rid of Angus Flint" (an obnoxious houseguest avoids all attempts to dislodge him).

All of the stories are short and sweet, which (unfortunately) means that they never achieve the convoluted greatness of Jones' novels. The stories here are just surreal snapshots with simple resolutions. However, Jones does a superb job of characterizing the central antagonists in each story. In particular, Chair Person is the most amiably malicious innocent that I've encountered since Charles Dickens' Harold Skimpole. ( )

Funny and easy to read set of stories. Particularly enjoyed the furniture revolt. ( )

This was frustrating. She's among my top-10 favourite authors, but these stories were so similar to each other that, when read together, they just felt repetitive and irritating. Still three stars, because it's Diana Wynne-Jones and she's a wonderful writer, but this would be my least favourite work of hers so far.

Read if you're a completist, otherwise skip--you can do better.

(Note: 5 stars = rare and amazing, 4 = quite good book, 3 = a decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. There are a lot of 4s and 3s in the world!) ( )

It's not often that I come across a Diana Wynne Jones book I haven't read, so I was pleased to see this one (as an audio book) among the three digital titles now available through the library's ebook system (hope they add more!).

It holds three short stories, all aimed at a young audience and all on the theme of unwelcome guests. Not something I'd read/listen to again, but enjoyable enough. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2463012.html

Three short stories by the late great DWJ, all about children being menaced by the supernatural. Animated items of furniture feature strongly. Two of the stories have evil (or at least very unhelpful) old ladies. They are good short pieces; the entire book is only 150 pages. ( )