Enchanted Glass by Diana Wynne Jones

Title: Enchanted Glass
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Publication: Greenwillow Books, hardcover, 2010
Genre: Juvenile fantasy
Setting: Present day England

Description: Aidan Cain, an orphan who just lost his grandmother, ran away from foster care when unnerved by the mysterious creatures that have started pursuing him. In desperation, he took the train to a village outside London to find a sorcerer his grandmother had corresponded with for years, only to learn old Jocelyn Brandon is dead. However, Jocelyn’s grandson, Andrew Hope has inherited Melstone House and took Aidan in, much to the annoyance of his dour housekeeper. Andrew is skeptical of magic and seems to have forgotten everything his grandfather stood for but as he tries to make sense of his surrounding, he attracts a quirky group of villagers (invariably named Stock) and some of these allies seem to have sinister doppelgangers. Aidan’s enemies have caught up with him with threats about his birthright, and a menacing neighbor seems to be fencing in parts of Andrew’s property. In order to withstand dangerous forces they do not understand, Andrew and Aidan must pool their knowledge and resources to save themselves and those around them at a confrontation at the village fete.

My Impression: There is a sort of running joke throughout Enchanted Glass that Andrew has given up his job as a university professor to write a book but is interrupted so frequently he never actually gets started. One such distraction is Aidan, a twelve year old who turns out to be a distant relative, and another is his beautiful new secretary, Stashe. And while everyone around Andrew is high maintenance, the most annoying is the housekeeper who makes a cauliflower cheese casserole for dinner whenever she is angry and deliberately puts back Andrew’s careful new arrangement of the furniture. While I enjoyed the book, I don’t think it has the emotional depth or complexity of DWJ’s best work and Andrew's memory lapses makes him a somewhat passive character.

UK cover

In folklore or fantasy, it can be dangerous for someone’s true name to be known by a stranger or opposing force. Names and knowledge have power. Andrew’s having forgotten all the lessons his grandfather taught him makes him vulnerable (his mother had told him magic was nonsense and he decided it “was not an adult thing to know”). Aidan complains that everyone gets his name wrong, even the menacing counterparts, and Andrew tries to reassure him:

“But has it ever occurred to you that if those Stalkers of yours had called you by the right name, you might have gone out to them?”

“Oh!” Aidan was much struck by this. “Do you think I would have?”

“Yes. Names are powerful things,” Andrew told him. “It could even have saved your life that they got yours wrong.”

Andrew tries to take control of the magic surrounding his property by walking its boundaries, bringing Aidan with him. This turns out to be more difficult than anticipated as it is unmarked except by vague magical feelings. They discover that Mr. Brown, who subsequently reveals himself as a polite enemy, has fenced off area that include Andrew’s land. Andrew assumes this has been done since his grandfather’s death but I immediately worried that Mr. Brown was planning to claim the property through adverse possession. In English law (and thus American), adverse possession can be established by a squatter without the owner's consent. The possession must also be continuous, open, and exclusive for a defined period, which is generally 10 years in Britain. If these conditions are satisfied, the possessor can apply to become the legal owner of the property. I remember studying Property Law in 2003 and we thought it was very unfair that an owner might not know someone had put up a fence or moved into a vacant house, and thus might become vulnerable. However, being a responsible caretaker of land – of the vaguely magical field-of-care – was important to Jocelyn Brand and he tried to convey this aspect of Andrew’s heritage before he died, without success.

It surprised me that I owned any unread DWJs but I was glad to find one for March Magics 2024 in which Chris from Calmgrove is celebrating two outstanding British fantasy writers, Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. I have not read Pratchett but I have been a DWJ fan since finding The Ogre Downstairs at my childhood library.  The title refers to enchanted glass at Melstone House that shows the key people in Jocelyn and Andrew's lives and visually depicts each sinister lookalike.

Source: Personal copy. I see DWJ dedicated this book to my friend Farah Mendlesohn, among others.