Wicked wolves threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie’s parents depart Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage and leave them in the care of the cruel governess Miss Slighcarp.
The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school. With the help of Simon the gooseboy and his flock, they escape. But how will they ever get Willoughby Chase free from the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp?
Reviewed by A. F. Harrold in Slightly Foxed Issue 64.
Joan’s Books
A. F. HARROLD
Joan Aiken was the daughter of the American poet laureate Conrad Aiken and the Canadian writer Jessie MacDonald, and two of her siblings also wrote books, so writing clearly ran in the family. From her pen came a raft of books, including a handful of Jane Austen sequels, period romances, supernatural short stories and most things in between. What I want to write about here though is her sequence of eleven novels for children that began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase in 1962 – page-turning adventure stories, set in a mostly historical past, with a sprinkling of the paranormal and a bucketful of brilliant characters . . .
Extract from Slightly Foxed Issue 64, Winter 2019
Joan’s Books
Joan Aiken was the daughter of the American poet laureate Conrad Aiken and the Canadian writer Jessie MacDonald, and two of her siblings also wrote books, so writing clearly ran in the family. From...
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