Eva Ibbotson books

Eva Ibbotson Picture

Eva Ibbotson Short Story Collections Reading Order

Eva Ibbotson Standalone Novels Reading Order

Picture

Short Story Collections

Standalone Novels

Eva Ibbotson (1925-2010) was an Austrian-born British novelist who wrote children’s fiction and adult romances over a career spanning more than three decades. Born in Vienna, she moved to England as a child to escape the rise of Nazism, and the Central European settings of her early life shaped many of her stories. Her books are known for their wit, warmth, and vivid sense of place, whether set in the Amazon rainforest, the Austrian Alps, or a haunted English castle.

Her children’s novels blend fantasy with humor and heart. Which Witch?, The Secret of Platform 13, and Journey to the River Sea became some of the most loved British children’s books of the late twentieth century. Journey to the River Sea won the Smarties Prize in 2001 and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Secret of Platform 13, about a magical island reached through a hidden gump under a London railway station, drew comparisons to Harry Potter despite being published three years earlier.

Ibbotson also wrote a series of adult romances set in the early 1900s, including A Countess Below Stairs, The Morning Gift, A Song for Summer, and Madensky Square. These books share a gentle, romantic tone with heroines navigating love and identity against the backdrop of European history. Several of her children’s books were published posthumously, including The Abominables and Mountwood School for Ghosts, keeping her stories in print for new generations of readers.