Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Brown, Mary
Tagged: Author.
(1929-1999) UK writer whose first novel of fantasy interest, The Unlikely Ones (1986), refreshingly subjects a Quest plot – involving a Seven-Samurai assortment of Companions (bound by a Curse) including a Cat, a crow, a girl who believes herself ugly (having been deceived by a Witch's Mirror) and who therefore wears a Mask, a Knight whose disability can be cured only if he marries the ugliest girl in the land, a Unicorn and others – to an acute though good-humoured interrogation. Brown's second novel of interest, Pigs Don't Fly (1994), replicates the pattern of the first, down to the number of companions (seven) and the handicapped young heroine, but sustains most of the joie de vivre. [JC]
Mary Brown
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