The celebrated Austrian-British author of The Star of Kazan and many other books for children and adults died at home in Newcastle on 20 October 2010. A delightful young adult adventure, The Star of Kazan twists and turns through Ibbotson’s fin-de-siecle Vienna. Annika, a foundling taken in by a household of eccentric professors and kind hearted servants, is enchanted by the spectacle of Vienna and the simple pleasures of domestic chores. Her life is turned upside-down when her aristocratic mother unexpectedly reappears in her life and sweeps her off to live in a castle in Germany. Ibbotson, a favorite writer for children, spent her early years in Vienna.