On one such outing to the estate of Stavely, trying to avoid both the Tea Ladies and Dr. Of course, Harriet also is allowed to go on outings with the Tea Circle, a whole group of ladies who are very similar to her Aunt Louisa. As she is raised by an aunt who has a box for string that is too short to tie and a father who has refused to allow her to go to University (why would a woman need higher education anyway? he reasons), Harriet’s only solace and time away from her confining home is in her weekly ballet classes. Though Ibbotson is quick to point out that she was not neglected, Harriet is not treated especially well. It follows the story of Harriet Morton, a girl raised in the most soul-sucking house one can imagine, on her journey to the Amazon as part of a traveling ballet company. This particular novel, A Company of Swans, was first published in 1985 and has had numerous reprints.
In an interview, she said that she would write in specific genres or styles until they became mainstream after that, she would move on to the next genre that interested her.
She won multiple awards for her work before her death in 2010 and is noted as a novelist who specifically wrote in the genres of romance and children’s fantasy. Originally, she was training to be a physiologist, but she changed her focus to education. According to her Goodreads author page, she attended Bedford College, Cambridge University, and the University of Durham. Several of her books are set, at least in part, in Vienna or in Cambridge, two places that Ibbotson held close to her own heart.īorn in Vienna in 1925 to a family with Jewish ancestry, Ibbotson’s family moved to Britain when her father received a well-timed job offer to the University of Edinburgh. However, she also wrote historical fiction romances, and A Company of Swans is one of those books.Īlthough they have slightly different settings and different characters, all of these books have a lyrical quality to them, and heroines that, even when you want to smack them for being so silly, you still want to get their “happily ever after.” They just read like good people. Eva Ibbotson, it seems, is primarily known for her children’s books: Which Witch?, The Secret of Platform 13, The Island of the Aunts, and so many other wonderful works.
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