![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Sir Willoughby Green is embarking on a long sea journey for the sake of his wife’s health leaving daughter Bonnie with a recently discovered distant relative who arrives at the grand old house of Willoughby Chase to be the governess. The scene is set for a chilling winter opening. In 1832 King James III ascended the throne, the Dover-Calais Channel Tunnel has been opened and Britain has become over-run by wolves who made it through the tunnel to escape hard European winters. The reason for this strangeness is dealt with in her author’s note before the story has begun, which sets it into the alternative history category. Aiken has created an England which feels both familiar and strange. The first third of this, the opening novel in a sequence which includes “Black Hearts In Battersea” and “Night Birds In Nantucket” is outstanding. She is one of the most important children’s writers of the twentieth century and this is her best known book. I met Joan Aiken because back in my teaching days in London I taught her grand-children. I don’t recall if I actually got through it on this occasion (I suspect not) but I’m sure I’ve read it since and found myself picking up a copy recently. This suggests I tackled it at a transition time from early readers and short read-alones and considered its 192 pages to be particularly massive. I can still remember borrowing this from the library when I was a child but I was convinced that it was a much bigger book. ![]()
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