Eva Ibbotson Books In Order

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Great Ghost Rescue (1975)
  2. Which Witch? (1979)
  3. A Countess Below Stairs (1981)
  4. The Reluctant Heiress (1982)
  5. Worm & The Toffee Nosed Princess (1983)
  6. A Company of Swans (1985)
  7. The Haunting of Granite Falls (1987)
  8. The Haunting of Hiram C. Hopgood (1987)
  9. Madensky Square (1988)
  10. Not Just a Witch (1989)
  11. The Morning Gift (1993)
  12. The Secret of Platform 13 (1994)
  13. Dial-a-Ghost (1996)
  14. A Song for Summer (1997)
  15. Island of the Aunts (1999)
  16. Journey to the River Sea (2001)
  17. The Star of Kazan (2004)
  18. The Beasts of Clawstone Castle (2005)
  19. The Dragonfly Pool (2008)
  20. The Ogre of Oglefort (2010)
  21. One Dog and His Boy (2011)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories (1984)
  2. Let Sleeping Sea-Monsters Lie and Other Cautionary Tales (2012)

Picture Books In Publication Order

  1. The Abominables (With: ) (2010)

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Picture Book Covers

Eva Ibbotson Books Overview

The Great Ghost Rescue

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. 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.

Which Witch?

A Publisher’s Weekly BestsellerWANTED: One wildly wicked witch to wed. Arriman the Awful, the handsome Wizard of the North, has decided to marry. But Which Witch? will it be? Arriman devises a contest: whoever performs the darkest piece of magic will become his bride. Belladonna, the smallest of the coven, wants desperately to win, but she has one problem: she’s a good witch. Her spells conjure up begonias and baby birds not a single nest of vipers or bloodshot eyeballs. But Belladonna is in love, and she’s determined to do something sinister in time for the contest…
. This title is included only in Juvenile 10.

A Countess Below Stairs

Anna, a young countess, has lived in the glittering city of St Petersburg all her life in an ice blue palace overlooking the River Neva. But when revolution tears Russia apart, her now penniless family is forced to flee to England. Armed with an out of date book on housekeeping, Anna determines to become a housemaid and she finds work at the Earl of Westerholme’s crumbling but magnificent mansion. The staff and the family are sure there is something not quite right about their new maid but she soon wins them over with her warmth and dedication. Then the young Earl returns home from the war and Anna falls hopelessly in love. But they can never be together: Rupert is engaged to the snobbish and awful Muriel and anyway, Anna is only a servant. Or so everybody thinks…

The Reluctant Heiress

Being an heiress in 1920s Austria with nothing but a broken down castle to your name and nary a penny in your purse could be frustrating for anyone but the Princess Theresa Maria of Pfaffenstein. Tessa, however, is thrilled with her situation, as it allows her to concentrate on her love of the arts and no one in the Viennese opera company need know that their delightful and charming under wardrobe mistress is really a princess. But when the dashing self made millionaire Guy Farne arrives at the opera in search of suitable entertainment for his high society guests, Tessa realizes that there may be more to life and love than just music. But while the attraction between them in undeniable, Guy’s insufferable snob of a fianc e only solidifies Tessa s determination to keep her true identity a secret. Yet, after a chance meeting with the handsome Englishman, Tessa s reserve begins to melt, and she starts to wonder if it s not too late for a fairytale ending

A Company of Swans

For nineteen year old Harriet Morton, life in 1912 Cambridge is as dry and dull as a biscuit. Her stuffy father and her opressive aunt Louisa allow her only one outlet: ballet. When a Russian ballet master comes to class searching for dancers to fill the corps of his ballet company before their South American tour, Harriet’s world changes. Defying her father s wishes and narrowly escaping the clutches of the man who wishes to marry her, Harriet sneaks off to join the ballet on their journey to the Amazon. There, in the wild, lush jungle, they perform Swan Lake in grand opera houses for the wealthy and culture deprived rubber barons, and Harriet meets Rom Verney, the handsome and mysterious British exile who owns the most ornate opera house. Utterly enchanted by both the exotic surroundings and by Rom s affections, Harriet is swept away by her new life, completely unaware that her father and would be finac have begun to track her down…
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The Haunting of Granite Falls

American millionaire Hiram C. Hopgood will stop at nothing to make his daughter, Helen, happy even if it means buying her an ancient Scottish castle and shipping it back to Texas. Assembling the castle isn t a problem for the oil tycoon…
it’s the ghosts that worry him. Hopgood has made up his mind: the ghouls have got to go. But these spirits don t spook so easily. Instead, they make their way to America, where they meet up with a magical severed hand and three fiendish, cross dressing kidnappers for a Texassized adventure with a ghostly Scottish flair.

The Haunting of Hiram C. Hopgood

American millionaire Hiram C. Hopgood will stop at nothing to make his daughter, Helen, happy even if it means buying her an ancient Scottish castle and shipping it back to Texas. Assembling the castle isn t a problem for the oil tycoon…
it’s the ghosts that worry him. Hopgood has made up his mind: the ghouls have got to go. But these spirits don t spook so easily. Instead, they make their way to America, where they meet up with a magical severed hand and three fiendish, cross dressing kidnappers for a Texassized adventure with a ghostly Scottish flair.

Not Just a Witch

Hectate Tenbury Smith can turn people into animals, and create new animals out of thin air. She’s an animal witch, and a recent graduate of a school for good witches. Determined to make the world a better place, Heckie befriends a boy named Daniel, and informs him of her mission to do good by turning bad people into animals. Together, Heckie and Daniel perform many a good deed, such as turning the mean owner of a nursing home into a warthog. But then Heckie falls in love with the conniving Lionel Knacksap. Can Daniel foil Lionel s evil plans and save Heckie from a broken heart?

The Morning Gift

Twenty year old Ruth Berger is desperate. The daughter of a Jewish Austrian professor, she was supposed to have escaped Vienna before the Na*zis marched into the city. Yet the plan went completely wrong, and while her family and fianc are waiting for her in safety, Ruth is stuck in Vienna with no way to escape. Then she encounters her father’s younger college professor, the dashing British paleontologist Quin Sommerville. Together, they strike a bargain: a marriage of convenience, to be annulled as soon as they return to safety. But dissolving the marriage proves to be more difficult than either of them thought not the least because of the undeniable attraction Quin and Ruth share. To make matters worse, Ruth is enrolled in Quin s university, in his very clas*ses. Can their secret survive, or will circumstances destroy their love?

The Secret of Platform 13

A hilarious fantasy for fans of Carroll, Nesbit, and Barrie! In the British tradition of comic fantasies, here is a wildly witty caper that would make Lewis Carroll laugh and E. Nesbit snicker. A forgotten door on an abandoned railway platform is the entrance to a magical kingdom an island where humans live happily with feys, mermaids, ogres, and other wonderful creatures. Carefully hidden from the world, the Island is only accessible when the door opens for nine days every nine years. A lot can go wrong in nine days. When the beastly Mrs. Trottle kidnaps the prince of the Island, it’s up to a strange band of rescuers to save him. But can an ogre, a hag, a wizard, and a fey really troop around London unnoticed? In a plot thick with mayhem, mix ups, and magic, there is something to please all. Fantasy lovers in particular will not want to miss this peek through the door of Platform 13 into the imagination of a deliciously clever writer.

Dial-a-Ghost

When little Oliver Smith inherits the gloomy mansion Helton Hall, his scheming cousins, the Snodde Brittles, are determined to rid themselves of the orphan heir. They have a perfect plan. They will hire some terrifying ghosts from the Dial a Ghost Agency to scare the boy to death. But, as in any Eva Ibbotson novel, the fantastic creatures do not necessarily behave as expected they are a little too human for that. Soon the ghosts, led by a mysterious girl spirit named Adopta, have joined with Oliver against his cousins. But they may have underestimated the depths of the Snodde Brittles’ evil…
. The laughs and frights are thick in this spooky story, which is sure to join Eva Ibbotson’s other books as classics of the genre.

A Song for Summer

When eighteen year old Ellen accepts the post of housekeeper at Hallendorf School of Music, Drama and Dance she wasn’t expecting it to be quite so unusual. For deep in the beautiful Austrian countryside, she finds an eccentrically magical world occupied by wild children and even wilder teachers, experimental dancers and a tortoise on wheels. Ellen is particularly intrigued by the enigmatic, and very handsome, Marek, part time gardener and fencing teacher. Life in Hallendorf seems idyllic, but outside Hitler’s Reich is already casting its menacing shadow over Europe. Through her growing friendship with Marek, Ellen begins to encounter the dreadful reality of a world on the brink of war. And by the time she has figured out Marek’s true identity and his dangerous mission, she is completely in love with him and equally sure that her love will never be requited.

Island of the Aunts

When the kindly old aunts decide that they need help caring for creatures who live on their hidden island, they know that adults can’t be trusted. What they need are a few special children who can keep a secret a secret as big as a magical island. And what better way to get children who can keep really big secrets, than to kidnap them! After all, some children just plain need to be kidnapped. Don’t miss this wildly inventive and funny read from master storyteller Eva Ibbotson.

‘Readers will not be able to put Island of the Aunts down! A fine choice for fantasy lovers.’ School Library Journal, starred review

‘Eva Ibbotson does magic, humor, and fantasy for ages 8 to 88 , and you’ll wish her books were never ending, so enchanting are her characters and fiendishly funny her plots!’ Book Sense

Journey to the River Sea

With the memorable characters and plot twists she brings to her best selling fantasies, Eva Ibbotson has written a hair raising novel, set in turn of the last century Brazil. Maia, an orphan, is sent from England to live with unfamiliar cousins on a rubber plantation in South America. The brave, curious girl and her fierce but kind governess arrive in their new home, each with secret hopes of adventure. These are immediately quashed by the Carters, who hate their adopted land and its inhabitants. They are obsessed with re creating England in the forest, right down to the watery puddings. It is only through friendship with a mysterious Indian boy who just might be the heir to a large fortune and a runaway child actor who specializes in Little Lord Fauntleroy that Maia and Miss Minton, her governess, find the excitement they longed for: an unexpected expedition into the heart of the Amazon, in search of a lost tribe and the legendary giant sloth.

The Star of Kazan

Annika never has a birthday – no one knows the date she was born. She celebrates her Found Day instead. For Annika was abandoned as a baby and found by a cook and a housemaid from Vienna. Her upbringing in the servants’ quarters of the house of three eccentric professors means that at an early age she can bake and ice a three-tier cake, and polish parquet floors to perfection. One summer’s evening a very old lady comes to stay with Annika’s awful neighbours. The stories of her extraordinary life as a famous dancer are spellbinding. Especially the tale of the besotted Russian count who gave her the legendary emerald, The Star of Kazan. Then suddenly a glamorous stranger arrives at Annika’s door. Her mother, after years of guilt and searching, has come to claim her. Annika is no servant but a Prussian aristocrat whose true home is a great castle. But at crumbling, spooky Spittal she discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her new-found family…
Eva Ibbotson’s hugely entertaining story is a timeless classic for listeners young and old. Fans of ‘Journey To The River Sea’ are in for an even more captivating treat in the eagerly-awaited ‘The Star of Kazan‘.

The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

Can two children foil an outrageous criminal plot with the help of some of the funniest and maddest ghosts ever invented? Clawstone Castle is ancient and famous, but its elderly owners have no money. In its great park live a legendary herd of wild white cattle that have roamed there since the days of the Druids, and now their future is threatened. Rollo and Madlyn come to stay with their uncle and aunt and, with the help of a mysterious recluse in the castle library, they collect an impressive team of phantoms who agree to help them turn Clawstone into a tourist attraction. There’s a bloodstained bride, an aristocrat whose chest is permanently gnawed by a rat, a girl who was sawn in half in a circus, a pair of feet without a body, and more. Paying visitors soon pour through the gates. But then a terrible fate befalls the cattle, and the ghosts and the children find themselves facing some very sinister enemies.

The Dragonfly Pool

Tally Hamilton is furious to hear she is being sent from London to a horrid, stuffy boarding school in the countryside. And all because of the stupid war. But Delderton Hall is a far more unusual and interesting place than Tally ever imagined, and she soon falls in love with its eccentric staff and pupils. Now she’s even organizing an exciting school trip to the kingdom of Bergania…
although Tally never expected to meet the prince. Prince Karil hates his life at the palace and he is only truly happy when he escapes to The Dragonfly Pool, a remote spot in the forests of Bergania. Then Karil meets a feisty English girl who brings the promise of adventure. But his country is under threat, and the prince soon looks to his new friend Tally for survival as well as friendship…

The Ogre of Oglefort

For excitement hungry orphan Ivo, a mission to save Princess Mirella from the dreaded Ogre of Oglefort is a dream come true. Together with a hag, a wizard, and a troll, Ivo sets out, ready for adventure. But when they get to the ogre’s castle, the rescuers are in for a surprise: the princess doesn’t need saving, but the depressed ogre does! It’s a warmhearted, hilarious romp in the tradition of Roald Dahl, with enough creepy magic, ghosts, and laughs to make even the saddest ogre smile.

A Glove Shop in Vienna and Other Stories

A collection of short stories by the author of Madensky Square reveals the writer’s ability to write funny and erudite historical fiction.

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