What a brilliant and talented writer this is! [In The Magicians of Caprona Diana Wynne Jones] breaks all the usual rules of fantasy with impunity, secure in her own virtuosity.

We are in Italy. Caprona is a Renaissance City State, ruled by its Duke and threatened by enemies with familiar names like Siena and Florence. But how strange; while some people travel by coach others have motor cars. It appears that we are not in a conventional Italy after all but in one parallel to our world, in a world where magic is a respected and indeed indispensable trade. In Caprona magic is traditionally the business of two families, the Montana and the Petrocchi, and also by what seems to be a long tradition the Montana and the Petrocchi are enemies. As if spell-making was not hard enough you—if you are a Montana—have always to be...