Joan Aiken

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Joan Delano Aiken (4 September 1924 – 4 January 2004) was an English novelist. 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. Her mother Jessie MacDonald, a Masters graduate from Radcliffe College, later married English writer Martin Armstrong.

She worked for the BBC and the United Nations Information Centre in London before she started writing professionally, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).

She died at her home in Petworth, West Sussex at the age of 79.

Contents 1 Writings 2 Selected works 2.1 Wolves Chronicles (in narrative order) 2.2 More Hanoverian stories 2.3 Arabel and Mortimer series 2.4 Felix Trilogy 2.5 'Jane Austen' novels 2.6 Others (chronological) 3 Footnotes 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Writings

Many of her most popular books, including the Wolves Chronicles, are set in an elaborate alternate history of Britain in which James II is never deposed in the Glorious Revolution, but supporters of the House of Hanover continually agitate against the monarchy. These books also toy with the geography of London, adding a Canal District among other features. Wolves have invaded the country from Europe via the newly built channel tunnel. Dido Twite is known as the intrepid cockney heroine of many of the series.

In a review of ‘’Midwinter Nightingale’’ for School Library Journal, Susan Patron praised the characterizations and the suspenseful plot, and noted that, “Athough the titles in the ‘Wolves’ series may be read independently”, readers may want to read the earlier books first.^[1]

Her series of children's books about Arabel and Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake. Others are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski and Pat Marriott.

Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.

Joan Aiken produced over a hundred books, including more than a dozen collections of fantasy stories, plays and poems, and modern and historical novels for adults and children.

Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories, amongst others those of M. R. James, Fitz James O'Brien and Nugent Barker. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting Of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.

[edit] Selected works

[edit] Wolves Chronicles (in narrative order)

• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1963)
• Black Hearts in Battersea (1964)
• Nightbirds on Nantucket (1966)
• The Whispering Mountain (1968)
• The Stolen Lake (1981)
• Dangerous Games, published in the UK as Limbo Lodge (1999)
• The Cuckoo Tree (1971)
• Dido and Pa (1986)
• Is Underground (British title: Is) (1992)
• Cold Shoulder Road (1995)
• Midwinter Nightingale (2003)
• The Witch of Clatteringshaws (2005)

[edit] More Hanoverian stories

• Midnight is a Place

[edit] Arabel and Mortimer series

• Arabel's Raven (1972)
• Escaped Black Mamba (1973)
• The Bread Bin (1974)
• Mortimer's Tie (1976)
• Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur (1979)
• The Spiral Stair (1979)
• The Mystery of Mr Jones's Disappearing Taxi (1982)
• Mortimer's Portrait on Glass (1982)
• Mortimer's Cross (1983)
• Mortimer Says Nothing (Three stories) (1985)
• Mortimer and Arabel (1992)
• Mortimer's Mine (1994)
• Mayhem in Rumbury (1995)

[edit] Felix Trilogy

• Go Saddle the Sea (1978)
• Bridle the Wind (1983)
• In the Teeth of the Gale (1988)

[edit] 'Jane Austen' novels

• Mansfield Revisited (1984)
• Jane Fairfax (The Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen's Emma) (1990)
• Eliza’s Daughter (1994)
• Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed (1996)
• The Youngest Miss Ward (1998)
• Lady Catherine's Necklace (2000)

[edit] Others (chronological)

• All You've Ever Wanted (1953)
• More Than You Bargained For (1955)
• The Kingdom and The Cave (1960)
• A Necklace of Raindrops (1968)
• Night Fall (1969)
• The Green Flash (1971)
• A Harp of Fishbones (1972)
• The Five-Minute Marriage (1977)
• The Kingdom Under the Sea (1981)
• The Cockatrice Boys (1996)

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Tymn, Marshall B.; Kenneth J. Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer (1979). Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide. New York: R.R. Bowker Co. p. 39. ISBN 0-8352-1431-1. 

[edit] External links

• The Official Joan Aiken Website
• Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 6 January 2004.
• Obituary and Appreciation, The Guardian, 7 & 9 January 2004.
• Obituary, The Times, 9 January 2004.
• Obituary, The Independent, 10 January 2004.
• Incomplete Bibliography
• Bibliography, with cover images, at Fantastic Fiction
• Retrospective: The Endless Imagination of Joan Aiken, at Books For Keeps
• Joan Aiken at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Joan Aiken at the Internet Book List
• Works by or about Joan Aiken in libraries (WorldCat catalog)