Joan Aiken - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, etc.

[Chloe]

For some reason I have never got round to reading her books (mainly because I could never work out which one of the Dido books came first) but having found The Wolves of Willoughby Chase in Oxfam the other day I have become a huge fan.

I am now on Blackhearts of Battersea and cant wait to start Nightbirds on Natucket.

Has anyone else read her

[Aurélien]

Has anyone else read her

Yes, but not for a couple of decades. For some reason I always mentally bracketted Joan Aiken's childrens' books with those by Leon Garfield.

Whilst I own several books by Conrad Aiken's descendants the only Joan Aiken presently listed in my on-line library list is an adult title - 'Emma Watson - The Watsons Completed'. Sorry, Chloe.

‘Aurélien Arkadiusz’

[Courtenay]

Merged with an older topic.

Hi everyone,

I was quite taken with today's "Google Doodle" on Google's homepage, which celebrates what would have been the 91st birthday of English author Joan Aiken.

I haven't read very many of her books at all, but one of my all-time favourite collections of short stories as a child was A Necklace of Raindrops, with breathtaking illustrations by Jan Pienkowski (of Meg and Mog fame, but he uses a very different style here):



My first teacher at school, when I was six, read us just a few of these hauntingly beautiful stories one day and I was hooked. I eventually got a copy of my own a few years later and read it over and over again.

We also had one of Joan Aiken's short novels about Mortimer the raven, which was hilarious and I just loved it, though so different from A Necklace of Raindrops that I'm not sure it ever quite registered with me that the two books were by the same author!



I was aware of Aiken's best-known series, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and its sequels, when I was at school, but for some reason never got around to reading them. Now, being reminded of her and how much I enjoyed her stories for younger children, I think I'll have to some time.

Is anyone else here familiar with the Wolves books, and would you recommend them? I'd love to hear from any fans before I try to get hold of the books myself. (As always — NO spoilers, please!!! )

I've also discovered the official Joan Aiken website, which looks worth exploring: http://www.joanaiken.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Poppy]

I haven't read any Joan Aiken books, I don't think. But what a beautiful title: A Necklace of Raindrops is.

[Courtenay]

Oh, it is, and the title story itself — the first one in the book — is an absolute gem. I think you'd like it too, Poppy, and all the rest of the stories. If you ever get hold of a copy, I'm sure you'd find it a good one to review for your blog!

[Poppy]

Thanks, I'll have to look out for a copy!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I like the "Google Doodle" too, Courtenay.

I read a couple of Joan Aikens from the library when I was a child, but I can't remember much about them except that they were dreamy and poetic. I enjoyed the 1989 film of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but I don't know whether or not it sticks closely to the book.

[Fiona1986]

I' bought The Wolves of Willoughby Chase in a charity shop a year or two ago as I'd seen the film and liked it. I enjoyed the book and it seems the film stayed fairly close to it from what I remember. There were many mentions of the tunnel that the wolves were coming through from Europe but that must be explored further in the sequels.

[Courtenay]

Thanks, I'll have to look out for a copy!

Poppy, if you or any others are interested, there are some copies available quite cheaply on AbeBooks: http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/t ... oan-aiken/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or some others on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... s&_sacat=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I see there's a more recent edition (published in America, I think) that has illustrations by Kevin Hawkes, but I would highly, highly, highly recommend getting one with the original Jan Pienkowski illustrations — the stories are more than beautiful enough in themselves, but his artwork takes them to something almost beyond magical. I mean it. There are wonderful black-and-white silhouette drawings throughout the book, as well as one colour plate for each story. The one for "The Patchwork Quilt" has probably stuck most in my memory, though I can't find an image of it online, so you'll have to read the book to see it!

Fiona, thanks for the recommendation of The Wolves. I gather there are about 12 books in the series in total, which Aiken wrote over several decades, though I only remember being aware of the first three in our school library — The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket. Now I think about it, though I've never read any of them, the titles must have stayed with me, as I remember being a little disappointed when I eventually learned that Battersea wasn't some distant and mysterious land, but an inner suburb of London!

[Anita Bensoussane]

I was trying to remember the title of a Joan Aiken book that my daughter liked very much when she was little. I've just asked her and it was Fog Hounds and Other Stories. She says the stories were mysterious and imaginative.