The Ogre Downstairs

Diana Wynne Jones

Sep 2014 · HarperCollins UK

About this ebook

Diana Wynne Jones at her finest – family feuds and chaos, magic with hilarious results and some of the most original ideas ever to appear between the covers of a book.

Casper, Johnny and Gwinny get a big shock when their mother marries the Ogre. The Ogre is large and stern and not at all interested in children, although this doesn't prevent him from adding his own two awful sons, Douglas and Malcolm, to the family mix. Now the five children and two adults are squashed under the same roof, which can lead to only one thing – war!

Then the Ogre brings home the Chemistry Sets – one for Malcolm and one for Johnny. Not that Johnny is impressed by this very obvious bribe. At least, not until they accidentally discover the flying lotion. Then the real fun begins...

Ratings and reviews

This is about blended families. Magical realism drives the plot. It's one of my favourites from childhood, and the first DWJ book which is recognisably in her later style. Two single parents, Sally and Jack, get married. The children don't get on together. The early part of the book is written from the point of view of Sally's children, who find Jack remote and stern, and give him the nickname "The Ogre". The Ogre buys each side of the family a chemistry set to keep them quiet, but the ingredients turn out to be magic. Both sides try to keep an increasingly weird succession of magic events from the other side and both parents. The characters are well-drawn, and she uses the range of their ages well in characterisation. The story is very 1970s— not a problem with details like the vinyl LPs of rock music, for example, but the Ogre's willingness to resort to corporal punishment is startling in the 2020s. There's too much head-hopping, something she later became skilled at avoiding.

About the author

Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) spent her childhood in Essex and began writing fantasy novels for children in the 1970s. With her unique combination of magic, humour and imagination, she enthralled generations of children and adults with her work. She won the Guardian Award in 1977 with Charmed Life, was runner-up for the Children's Book Award in 1981 and was twice runner-up for the Carnegie Medal.