That combination makes for such a fun read. There’s an interesting combination in both Dickens and this book of realism and fantasy. The back cover noted that and the more I think about it, the more both plot and character felt like something Dickens would write. The Wolves of Wilhoughby Chase felt so much like a kid’s version of Jane Eyre whereas this one felt very Dickensian.
The plot is rather absurd but it doesn’t even matter because it is written so engagingly and the characters are so lovable. Even when things are looking grim for Sophie and Simon and their cadre in this alternate English history, the humor sparkles through. Perhaps I was right back then, but my love of British humor and storytelling has grown so much that I just loved this book! The characters are fantastic, the storytelling is somehow both breezy and compelling, and the humor is just so great. I never thought this was a book I would love.
Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.Īiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.Īnother series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).
She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories. Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature.
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