Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories. 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 United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972). Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world. Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea 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. 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.
Series
Books
Arabel's Raven
1822
Lady Catherine's Necklace
1999
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
1962
Mansfield Revisited a Jane Austen Entertainment
1984
Black Hearts in Battersea
1964
A Cluster of Separate Sparks
1972
Midwinter Nightingale
2003
The Gift Giving
Favourite Stories
2016
The Cold Flame
2016
Furry Night
2018
Dangerous Games
1998
Blackground
1989
Embroidered Sunset
1970
Shadows & Moonshine
2001
The Cuckoo Tree
1971
Emma Watson
1996
Nightbirds on Nantucket
1966
Castle Barebane
1976
Go Saddle the Sea
1977
All You've Ever Wanted and Other Stories
1953
El gran libro de Satán
Los mejores relatos, ensayos y poemas de la literatura maligna universal
2021
Dido and Pa
1986
Voices in an Empty House
1975
The Uncanny Reader
Stories from the Shadows
2015
The kitchen warriors
1983
Last Movement
1977
Not What You Expected
A Collection of Short Stories
1974
Beware of the Bouquet
1966
Eliza's Daughter
1994
Died on a Rainy Sunday
1972
The Girl from Paris
1982
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
2002
The Kingdom and the Cave
1960
All But a Few
1974
Reading in Bed
2011
The Haunting of Lamb House
1991
The Wooden Dragon
2004
The Spiral Stair
1979
Morningquest
1993
A Whisper in the Night
Tales of Terror and Suspense
1983
The Last Slice of Rainbow and Other Stories
1985
Bridle the Wind
1979
The Stolen Lake
1981
Arabel, Mortimer, and the Escaped Black Mamba
1973
The Scream
2002
The Serial Garden
The Complete Armitage Family Stories
2008
The Kingdom Under the Sea and Other Stories
1971
The Witch of Clatteringshaws
2005
The Teeth of the Gale
1988
The Whispering Mountain
1968
The Youngest Miss Ward
1998
Arabel and Mortimer Stories
2019
The Far Forests
1976
The Crystal Crow
1967
Smoke from Cromwell's Time and Other Stories
1959
Up the Chimney Down
1984
Armitage, Armitage, Fly Away Home
1965
Return to Harken House
1988
Fog Hounds and Other Stories
1984
The Way to Write for Children
1982
Mortimer's Tie
1976
The Winter Sleepwalker and Other Stories
1994
Jane Fairfax
1990
The Smile of the Stranger
1977
A Foot in the Grave
1989
Dead Man's Lane
1996
The Fortune Hunters
1965
A Harp of Fishbones and Other Stories
1972
Haunting Christmas Tales
1991
A Necklace of Raindrops and Other Stories
1968
The Cockatrice Boys
1993
The Jewel Seed
1996
If I Were You
1987
The Skin Spinners
Poems
1976
The Weeping Ash
1980
The Year's Best Fantasy
First Annual Collection
1988
Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur
1979
Cold Shoulder Road
1995
Searching for Sumer
2008
The Moon's Revenge
1987
The Shadow Guests
1980
The Five-Minute Marriage
1977
Midnight is a Place
1974
Dark Interval
1967
The Erl King's Daughter
1988
The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories
2000
Night Fall
1969
Foul Matter
1983
The Shoemaker's Boy
1991
Give Yourself a Fright
Thirteen Stories of the Supernatural
1989
Tale of a One-Way Street and Other Stories
1978
The Silence of Herondale
1964
Moon Cake and Other Stories
1998
The Lodgers
2023
A Creepy Company
1995
Mortimer and Arabel
1992
Is Underground
1992
Past Eight O'Clock
1986
Chilling Christmas Tales
1992
The People in the Castle
Selected Strange Stories
2016
