It looks like you're offline.
Donate
English (en) Change Website Language
Open Library logo
additional options menu
Last edited by MARC Bot
September 27, 2020 | History
Edit

Eva Ibbotson

Eva Ibbotson (born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner, 1925, Vienna, Austria) was a British novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy. Eva Ibbotson was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. When Hitler came into power, Ibbotson's family moved to England. She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945; Cambridge University from 1946-47; and the University of Durham, from which she graduated with a diploma in education in 1965. Ibbotson had intended to be a physiologist, but was put off by the amount of animal testing that she would have to do. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960's. Ibbotson was widowed with three sons and a daughter.

Ibottson began writing with the television drama Linda Came Today, in 1965. Ten years later, she published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue. Ibbotson has written numerous books including The Secret of Platform 13, Journey to the River Sea, Which Witch?, Island of the Aunts, and Dial-a-Ghost. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Journey to the River Sea, and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature. The books are imaginative and humorous, and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite the fact that she disliked thinking about the supernatural, and created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things. Some of the books, particularly Journey to the River Sea, also reflect Ibbotson's love of nature. Ibbotson wrote this book in honor of her husband (who had died just before she wrote it), a former naturalist. The book had been in her head for years before she actually wrote it. Ibbotson said she dislikes "financial greed and a lust for power" and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. Some have been struck by the similarity of "Platform 9 3/4" in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books to Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book.

Her love of Austria is evident in works such as The Star Of Kazan and A Song For Summer. These books, set primarily in the Austrian countryside, display the author's love for nature and all things natural.

Photo of Eva Ibbotson

British children's writer (1925–2010)

Born 21 January 1925
Died 20 October 2010

114 works Add another?

  • Cover of: Das Geheimnis von Bahnsteig 13.
    Preview

    First published in 1999 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Das Geheimnis von Bahnsteig 13.
    Preview

    First published in 2002 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Das Lied Eines Sommer

    First published in 1999 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Das Lied eines Sommers. Sonderausgabe.

    First published in 2001 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Die kleine Komtess.

    First published in 2001 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: El Castillo Del Lago

    First published in 2003 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: El Concurso De Brujas (Infantil Y Juvenil)

    First published in 2002 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: El Destino De Una Condesa

    First published in 2002 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: El Regalo de Un Nuevo Amanecer

    First published in 2001 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: The Eva Ibbotson Gift Set

    First published in 2002 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Fantasmas En Peligro

    First published in 2005 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Glove Shop in Vienna

    First published in 1984 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: A glove shop in Vienna and other stories
    Preview

    First published in 1992 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Great Ghost Rescue (Windrush)

    First published in 1989 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Hauch Von Jasmin

    First published in 1999 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Reine du fleuve
    Preview

    First published in 2005 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Un chant pour l'été
    Preview

    First published in 1999 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Les matins d'émeraude
    Preview

    First published in 1997 — 1 edition
    Borrow

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: Let Sleeping Seamonsters Lie And Other Cautionary Tales
    Preview

    First published in 2012 — 1 edition
    Preview Only

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

  • Cover of: The Secret Countess (A Countess Below Stairs)

    First published in 1981 — 1 edition
    Locate

    My Reading Lists:

    Create a new list

Photo of Eva Ibbotson

British children's writer (1925–2010)

Born 21 January 1925
Died 20 October 2010

Subjects

Fiction, Children's fiction, Juvenile fiction, Orphans, Fairy tales, Ghosts, Magic, Orphans, fiction, Vienna (austria), fiction, Large type books, Magic, fiction, Witches, Wizards, Adventure and adventurers, fiction, Ghost stories, History, Kidnapping, Adventure and adventurers, Children's stories, England, fiction, Fiction, romance, general, Ghosts, fiction, Humorous stories, Witches, fiction, Adventure stories

Places

England, London, Vienna (Austria), Austria, Brazil, Germany, London (England), Amazon River Region, Cambridge, Europe, Manaus (Brazil), St Petersberg, The Amazon

People

Arriman the Awful, Belladonna, Humphrey the Horrible, Rick Henderson

Time

1867-1918, 1871-1918, 1889-1930, 1890-1931, 1917-1919, 1933-1945, 19th century, 20th century

Add to List

My Reading Lists:

Create a new list

ID Numbers

Links outside Open Library

No links yet. Add one?

Alternative names

  • Eva Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner Ibbotson

History

Download catalog record: RDF / JSON
September 27, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot add ISNI
March 31, 2017 Edited by MARC Bot add VIAF and wikidata ID
September 5, 2013 Edited by CGN Edited without comment.
September 5, 2013 Edited by CGN Added new photo
April 1, 2008 Created by an anonymous user initial import