The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson

Her love of Austria is evident in works such as The Star Of Kazan and A Song For Summer. Rowling's Harry Potter books to Ibbotson's The Secret of Platform 13, which came out three years before the first Harry Potter book. Some have been struck by the similarity of 'Platform 9 3/4' in J.K. Ibbotson said she dislikes 'financial greed and a lust for power' and often creates antagonists in her books who have these characteristics. The book had been in her head for years before she actually wrote it. Ibbotson wrote this book in honor of her husband (who had died just before she wrote it), a former naturalist. Some of the books, particularly Journey to the River Sea, also reflect Ibbotson's love of nature. Her books are imaginative and humorous, and most of them feature magical creatures and places, despite the fact that she disliked thinking about the supernatural, and created the characters because she wanted to decrease her readers' fear of such things. She won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for Journey to the River Sea, and has been a runner up for many of major awards for British children's literature. Ibbotson has written numerous books including The Secret of Platform 13, Journey to the River Sea, Which Witch?, Island of the Aunts, and Dial-a-Ghost. Ten years later, she published her first novel, The Great Ghost Rescue. Ibottson began writing with the television drama 'Linda Came Today', in 1965. Ibbotson was widowed with three sons and a daughter. Instead, she married and raised a family, returning to school to become a teacher in the 1960s.

Ibbotson had intended to be a physiologist, but was put off by the amount of animal testing that she would have to do.

She attended Bedford College, graduating in 1945 Cambridge University from 1946-47 and the University of Durham, from which she graduated with a diploma in education in 1965. When Hitler came into power, her family moved to England. She was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925. Eva Ibbotson (born Maria Charlotte Michelle Wiesner) was a British novelist specializing in romance and children's fantasy.

The Secret of Platform 13 by Eva Ibbotson