The Lives of Christopher Chant

JONES, Diana Wynne. The Lives of Christopher Chant. NY: Greenwillow [1988]. 8vo, [x] 230pp. Red quarter-cloth stamped in gold with navy boards decoratively stamped in blind. Red endpapers. A fine copy in original color pictorial dust jacket. Signed by the author, Diana Wynne Jones.

First US edition. The fourth of Diana Wynne Jones' Chrestomanci series, but the first chronologically, being the story of the childhood of Christopher Chant, who was first introduced in the author's Charmed Life as the powerful nine-lived enchanter, Chrestomanci. Young Christopher's father and uncles are enchanters, his mother a powerful sorceress, yet nothing seems magical about Christopher Chant except his dreams. Night after night, he climbs through the formless Place Between and visits marvelous lands he calls the Almost Anywheres. Then Christopher discovers that he can bring real, solid things back from his dreams. When others begin to recognize the extent of his powers, Christopher's life is turned upside down as everyone tries to get control of his magic!