WRITER

Eva Ibbotson

1925 - 2010

Eva Ibbotson

Eva Maria Charlotte Michelle Ibbotson (née Wiesner; 21 January 1925 – 20 October 2010) was an Austrian-born British novelist, known for her children's literature. Some of her novels for adults have been reissued for the young adult market. The historical novel Journey to the River Sea (Macmillan, 2001) won her the Smarties Prize in category 9–11 years, garnered an unusual commendation as runner-up for the Guardian Prize, and made the Carnegie, Whitbread, and Blue Peter shortlists. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Eva Ibbotson has received more than 387,005 page views. Her biography is available in 19 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 17 in 2019). Eva Ibbotson is the 5,512th most popular writer (down from 5,166th in 2019), the 952nd most popular biography from Austria (down from 864th in 2019) and the 70th most popular Austrian Writer.

Memorability Metrics

390k
Page Views (PV)
45.96
Historical Popularity Index (HPI)
19
Languages Editions (L)
2.95
Effective Languages (L*)
2.95
Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Which witch?

Magic, Witches, Juvenile fiction

Arriman the Awful, feared Great Wizard of the North, has decided to marry, because he must sire a child to carry on his tradition of Loathing Light and Blighting the Beautiful. But his wife must be a witch of the darkest powers... A sorcery competition among the witches of Todcaster is held to discover which witch is the most potent and fiendish. The competition begins, and each witch it turn pulls out of the cauldron her especially wicked spell. But some go terribly, horribly wrong. Glamorous Madame Olympia conjures up a thousand plague-bearing rats! Belladonna, the white witch, desperately wants to be a wicked enchantress, but her magic produces flowers instead of snakes. How can she become more devilish than all the other witches?

1979

A Countess Below Stairs

Countesses, Juvenile fiction, Fiction

After the Russian revolution turns her world topsy-turvy, Anna, a young Russian Countess, has no choice but to flee to England. Penniless, Anna hides her aristocratic background and takes a job as servant in the household of the esteemed Westerholme family, armed only with an outdated housekeeping manual and sheer determination. Desperate to keep her past a secret, Anna is nearly overwhelmed by her new duties—not to mention her instant attraction to Rupert, the handsome Earl of Westerholme. To make matters worse, Rupert appears to be falling for her as well. As their attraction grows stronger, Anna finds it more and more difficult to keep her most dearly held secrets from unraveling. And then there's the small matter of Rupert's beautiful and nasty fiancée...

1981

The great ghost rescue

Ghost stories, Juvenile fiction, 1970s

The ghosts of Britain need a sanctuary. Castles with central heating, bogs drained for motorways, dismal forests cleared for car parks-there are few places left for a respectable ghost to haunt. Humphrey the Horrible (actually his name is simply Humphrey-he added "the Horrible" to help himself become horrible) is a small, mostly unsuccessful ghost in a family of ghastly ghouls. His mother worries. Nobody knew what had gone wrong with Humphrey. Perhaps it was his ectoplasm'. Humphrey the Horrible sounds scary, but he's actually a very friendly skeleton, with twinkling eye sockets and jangling finger bones. Humphrey dreams of being ghastly, like his brother - a screaming skull - or terrifying, like his bloodsucking vampire-bat cousins. But when Humphrey discovers an evil plot to exorcise his family he finally realizes you don't have to be spine-chillingly fearsome to be a hero. But Humphrey has enough pluck to befriend a smart, politically aware schoolboy, Rick Henderson, who is willing to take the ghosts' cause right to the top, to number 10 Downing Street-home of the Prime Minister.

1975

Magic flutes

Opera, Fiction

1982

A Company of Swans

Ballet dancers, Fiction, Ficción

Harriet Morton is the daughter of a priggish and pompous professor, living in Cambridge. They live with his maiden sister who is sanctimonious and mean. There is no love in that house. The only concession they have given young Harriet, is dance. Here she is invited to join a ballet company based in Manaus in the Amazon area. Running away from home, she truly begins the adventure of living her life... Romain Versey, formerly of Stavely in Cambridge has been away from home since the age of 19 due to a wicked stepbrother and after being betrayed in love. He went off to the Amazon to seek his fortune and is now extremely wealthy. As the president of the theatre where Harriet's company is based, Romain meets his one true love. Will the two manage to overcome abductions and misunderstanding to be together?

1985

The secret of platform 13

Juvenile fiction, Quests (Expeditions), Fiction

Odge Gribble, a young hag, joins an old wizard, a gentle fey, and a giant ogre on a journey from their magical island kingdom to London through a tunnel which opens every nine years for nine days, to try and rescue the young prince who had been stolen as an infant nine years before.

1994