Witch Week
core novel 1982 Chrestomanci
Record
| First published | 1982 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.92 (15,478 ratings, collected 2026-09-14) |
| Page count | 288 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780688155452 |
| Internal chronology | 5 |
Synopsis
In an alternate 1981 Britain where witchcraft is illegal and punishable by death, students at Larwood House boarding school panic after a note left in class declares that someone among them is a witch. The story centers on unpopular classmates Nan Pilgrim and Charles Morgan, both quietly coming to terms with magical abilities they dare not reveal, as a teacher who discovers the note brings in a feared Inquisitor to investigate. What begins as furtive suspicion escalates into a wave of unexplained magical incidents around the school, from birds appearing indoors to a rain of shoes and a curse laid on a classmate, drawing ever closer official scrutiny.
Where it sits
- Universe: Chrestomanci
- Series: Chrestomanci core; position 3 of 7 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Notes
- From the series record (Chrestomanci): Listed in PUBLICATION order (1977-2006); internal chronology records the settled internal/story order instead (1. The Lives of Christopher Chant, 2. Conrad's Fate, 3. Charmed Life, 4. The Pinhoe Egg, 5. Witch Week, 6. The Magicians of Caprona), per HarperCollins' own 'Chronicles of Chrestomanci' recommended-reading-order reissues -- left null for Mixed Magics, a 4-story collection whose individual stories span multiple points in the internal timeline rather than occupying one slot. This is the first universe in this canon to actually populate `internal chronology` for a publication-vs-internal divergence (distinct from other cases in this canon with a genuinely *disputed* chronology -- here the order is well-documented and author-sanctioned, not contested) -- a usable precedent for Valdemar's own still-open equivalent.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Chrestomanci: position 3 of 7: previous The Magicians of Caprona (1980) · next The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988)
- Internal chronology, within Chrestomanci: position 5 of 6: previous The Pinhoe Egg (2006) · next The Magicians of Caprona (1980)
Sources
← Chrestomanci dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.