In any case, I feel slightly vindicated by this new cover from HarperCollins (which sucks by the way) as it proves my theory that the tiny little blob of the moving castle on this cover is a homage to the Miyazaki design from the movie. As I indulge further in more theorizing, the chicken feet castle from the film clearly has its roots not in Jones' description (since the book version of the castle lacks any form of limb-like appendages) but in a rather terrifying folk story personality from Russia; a witch known as Baba Yaga, and whose house has a pair of bird-feet to move around about. Her preferred method of transportation however, seems to be a flying mortar and pestle (if I did not remember wrongly). Goodness knows why Miyazaki modelled the castle on this, but nevermind...
What I really wanted to do was point out how the covers of Diana Wynne Jones' books seem to be getting from bad to worse. It's no wonder if children nowadays don't read her books. The same can be said for the Penguin covers of the Artemis Fowl series, which can be succinctly surmised as they think it is snazzy but is really ugly.
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