It has been a long day at the conference, and I have followed that with a couple of hours updating the Westercon 64 web site, as we (SFSFC) have won the bid and now have a convention to run. I am particularly pleased with us having Patricia McKillip as a Guest of Honor.

But I should be reporting on the panels. There were several, but basically only two overall themes. The first is that Diana’s books are very much concerned with how families treat children. In her life Diana has seen a significant change in this, from the Victorian system in which children were often kept in the dark, or fed a pack of lies, “for their own good”, to the modern practice in which we attempt to have a much more open and honest relationship with our children. Diana appears to prefer the latter approach, but fills her books with adults who treat children rather poorly at times.

The other major theme has been one of complexity, metafictionality and the like. Diana’s books are seldom what they appear at first sight, and generally reveal many levels of complexity and disguise as you read them. There is a definite project in evidence – Diana wants her readers to think for themselves, and ultimately take responsibility for themselves. This does make her books a more difficult read that those of other YA authors, but they are also more rewarding. And, as Sharyn November noted this evening, if you meet someone who loves Diana Wynne Jones books then that person will almost certainly be a very interesting person to talk to.

I also managed to bag a quick video interview with Andy Sawyer on the subject of the new John Wyndham novel published by Liverpool University Press. Why a book about Nazi clones, written by one of Britain’s best-loved SF writers, is having to be published by a small university press is beyond me. Someone should make an offer to do a mass market version.

I’ll try to write more about individual papers when I do the final con report. Right now I need sleep.