Joan Aiken

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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 the 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).

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 William of Orange called "Hanoverians" 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.

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

Contents

[edit] Notable works

[edit] Wolves Chronicles (in narrative order)

[edit] More Hanoverian Stories

  • Midnight is a Place
  • The Whispering Mountain (1968)

[edit] Arabel and Mortimer Series

  • Arabel's Raven (1972)
  • Escaped Black Mamba (1973)
  • The Bread Bin (1974)
  • Mortimer's Tie (1976)
  • Arabel and Mortimer (1980)
  • Mortimer's Cross (1983)
  • Arabel and the Escaped Black Mamba (1984)
  • A Call at the Joneses (1985)
  • Mortimer Says Nothing (1985)
  • The Mystery of Mr Jones's Disappearing Taxi (1988)
  • Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur (1990)
  • Mortimer's Portrait on Glass (1990)
  • Mortimer and Arabel (1992)
  • The Spiral Stair (1992)
  • The Adventures of Arabel and Mortimer (1993)
  • Mortimer's Mine (1994)
  • Mayhem in Rumbury (1995)
  • Mortimer's Bread Bin (2001)

[edit] Others (chronological)

  • Felix series
  • The Third Wish (1955)
  • Night Fall (1969)
  • The Green Flash (1971)
  • A Harp of Fishbones (1972)
  • Jane Fairfax: The Secret Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen's Emma (1997)

[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., 39. ISBN 0-8352-1431-1.  The Third Wish

[edit] External links


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