Diana Jones - The Chrestomanci Series - Entire Collection Books 1-7

THE CHRESTOMANCI SERIES: ENTIRE COLLECTION BOOKS 1-7

Charmed Life

The Magicians of Caprona

Witch Week

The Lives of Christopher Chant

Mixed Magics

Conrad’s Fate

The Pinhoe Egg

Diana Wynne Jones

Copyright Copyright Charmed Life The Magicians of Caprona Witch Week The Lives of Christopher Chant Mixed Magics Conrad’s Fate The Pinhoe Egg Keep Reading About the Author About the Publisher

Charmed Life. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1977

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007393930

Version 1

The Magicians of Caprona. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1980

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007369096

Version 1

Witch Week. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1982

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007369102

Version 1

The Lives of Christopher Chant. Text copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 1988

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007389018

Version 1

Mixed Magics. collection © Diana Wynne Jones 2000

Warlock at the Wheel © Diana Wynne Jones 1984 Carol Oneir’s Hundreth Dream © Diana Wynne Jones 1986 The Sage of Theare © Diana Wynne Jones 1982 Stealer of Souls © Diana Wynne Jones 2000 Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2000

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007389025

Version 1

Conrad’s Fate. Copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 2005

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2005

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007383511

Version 1

The Pinhoe Egg. Copyright © Diana Wynne Jones 2006

Illustrations copyright © Tim Stevens 2006

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2009 ISBN: 9780007349951

Version 1

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Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2013 ISBN: 9780007537921

Version: 2019-06-10

Contents

Title Page THE CHRESTOMANCI SERIES: ENTIRE COLLECTION BOOKS 1-7 Charmed Life The Magicians of Caprona Witch Week The Lives of Christopher Chant Mixed Magics Conrad’s Fate The Pinhoe Egg Diana Wynne Jones

Copyright

Charmed Life

The Magicians of Caprona

Witch Week

The Lives of Christopher Chant

Mixed Magics

Conrad’s Fate

The Pinhoe Egg

Keep Reading

About the Author

About the Publisher

For Claire, Nicholas and Frances

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Cat Chant admired his elder sister Gwendolen. She was a witch. He admired her and he clung to her. Great changes came about in their lives and left him no one else to cling to.

The first great change came about when their parents took them out for a day trip down the river in a paddle steamer. They set out in great style, Gwendolen and her mother in white dresses with ribbons, Cat and his father in prickly blue serge Sunday suits. It was a hot day. The steamer was crammed with other people in holiday clothes, talking, laughing, eating whelks with thin slices of white bread and butter, while the paddle boat steam organ wheezed out popular tunes so that no one could hear themselves talk.

In fact the steamer was too crowded and too old. Something went wrong with the steering. The whole laughing, whelk-eating Sunday-dressed crowd was swept away in the current from the weir. They hit one of the posts which were supposed to stop people being swept away, and the paddle steamer, being old, simply broke into pieces. Cat remembered the organ playing and the paddles beating the blue sky. Clouds of steam screamed from broken pipes and drowned the screams from the crowd, as every single person aboard was swept away through the weir.

It was a terrible accident. The papers called it the Saucy Nancy Disaster. The ladies in their clinging skirts were quite unable to swim. The men in tight blue serge were very little better off. But Gwendolen was a witch, so she could not drown. And Cat, who flung his arms around Gwendolen when the boat hit the post, survived too. There were very few other survivors.

The whole country was shocked by it. The paddle boat company and the town of Wolvercote between them paid for the funerals. Gwendolen and Cat were given heavy black clothes at public expense, and rode behind the procession of hearses in a carriage pulled by black horses with black plumes on their heads. The other survivors rode with them. Cat looked at them and wondered if they were witches and warlocks, but he never found out. The Mayor of Wolvercote had set up a Fund for the survivors. Money poured in from all over the country. All the other survivors took their share and went away to start new lives elsewhere. Only Cat and Gwendolen were left and, since nobody could discover any of their relations, they stayed in Wolvercote.

They became celebrities for a time. Everyone was very kind. Everyone said what beautiful little orphans they were. It was true. They were both fair and pale, with blue eyes, and looked good in black. Gwendolen was very pretty, and tall for her age. Cat was small for his age. Gwendolen was very motherly to Cat, and people were touched.

Cat did not mind. It made up a little for the empty, lost way he was feeling. Ladies gave him cake and toys. Town Councillors came and asked how he was getting on; and the Mayor called and patted him on the head. The Mayor explained that the money from the Fund was being put into a Trust for them until they were grown up. Meanwhile, the town would pay for their education and upbringing.

“And where would you little people like to live?” he asked kindly.

Gwendolen at once said that old Mrs Sharp downstairs had offered to take them in. “She’s been ever so kind to us,” she explained. “We’d love to live with her.”