J. A. Allison

A Great Read, 19 Mar 2013

I have grown increasingly appreciative of the layers, tensions and humour of Joan Aiken's YA and children's books through the 25-odd years that I have been reading them. The couple of adult books of hers I've read have by contrast seemed pretty standard psychological thrillers - as if the landscapes of childhood and adolescence offered more scope for her wild, dark and lilting imagination. Her most famous series are probably the "Arabel and Mortimer" books for young readers (Mortimer is a raven who only says "nevermore" and Arabel is a spritely six-year-old) and the Wolves of Willoughby Chase sequence (also referred to as the "Dido" books), starring the intrepid urchin Dido Twite in an… Read more