Joan Aiken

Joan Delano Aiken (September 4 1924 – January 4 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.

She worked for the BBC and the UNIC, 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).

Writings

Many of her most popular books, including the Wolves Chronicles, were 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.

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

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

Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. Her favourite authors were 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.

Selected works

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)

More Hanoverian stories

* "Midnight is a Place"

Arabel and Mortimer series

* "Arabel's Raven" (1972)
* "Escaped Black Mamba" (1973)
* "The Bread Bin" (1974)
* "Mortimer's Tie" (1976)
* "The Spiral Stair" (1979)
* "Arabel and Mortimer" (1980)
* "Mortimer's Portrait on Glass" (1981)
* "The Mystery of Mr Jones's Disappearing Taxi" (1982)
* "Mortimer's Cross" (1983)
* "Arabel and the Escaped Black Mamba" (1984)
* "A Call at the Joneses" (1985)
* "Mortimer Says Nothing" (1985)
* "Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur" (1987)
* "Mortimer and Arabel" (1992)
* "The Adventures of Arabel and Mortimer" (1993)
* "Mortimer's Mine" (1994)
* "Mayhem in Rumbury" (1995)
* "Mortimer's Bread Bin" (2001)

Felix Trilogy

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

Others (chronological)

* "The Third Wish" (1955)
* "Night Fall" (1969)
* "The Green Flash" (1971)
* "A Harp of Fishbones" (1972)
* "Mansfield Revisited" (1984)
* "" (1996)
* "The Cockatrice Boys" (1996)
* "" (1997)
* "The Youngest Miss Ward" (1998)
* "Lady Catherine's Necklace" (2000)

References

*cite book | last=Tymn | first=Marshall B. | |coauthors=Kenneth J. Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer | title=Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide | location=New York | publisher=R.R. Bowker Co. | pages=39 | date=1979 | isbn =0-8352-1431-1

External links

* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1451045/Joan-Aiken.html Obituary] , "Daily Telegraph", 6 January 2004.
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/07/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries Obituary] and [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries Appreciation] , "The Guardian", 7 & 9 January 2004.
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article990979.ece Obituary] , "The Times", 9 January 2004.
* [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/joan-aiken-549245.html Obituary] , "The Independent", 10 January 2004.
* [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tibsnjoan/JoanAiken/ Incomplete Bibliography]
* [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/joan-aiken/ Bibliography, with cover images, at Fantastic Fiction]
* [http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issues/157/85 Retrospective: The Endless Imagination of Joan Aiken, at "Books For Keeps"]
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