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Blackground
by Joan Aiken'Blackground deals with guilty secrets, greed, betrayal and murder. Joan Aiken knows her trade.' London Review of Books.Cat Conwil is an actress on the brink of fame – will love be her saviour of her downfall?Cat lands a starring role in a TV adaptation of Middlemarch shooting on location at the splendid Knoyle Court. There, she’s pursued by the estate’s owner millionaire James Tybold – they fall for eachother hard and fast, marry and embark on the honeymoon of a lifetime. But only in romantic Venice as they start getting to really know each other do they uncover the shocking truth – that they met before, many years ago . . .From this moment everything changes – they both have dark histories, complicated families, and one of them has some devastating secrets in their past . . .Between a film set, a Venetian honeymoon and a section of the Dorset coast remodelled to resemble a Greek fishing village, award winning author Joan Aiken entwines mortal danger with quirky characters in her captivating romantic suspense novel, Blackground.
The Butterfly Picnic
by Joan Aiken'For sheer enjoyability this tops almost anything' The TimesIntelligent and spirited Georgia March flies to the beautiful Greek island of Dendros to meet her cousin Sweden, but upon arrival finds her cousin Sweden’s body lying in a pool blood . . .Georgia has come to the paradise island of Dendros in search of a new life, a new job, and a way to forget about her lost lover. Instead, her adventure begins with tragedy and takes her to a mountain-top fortress – home to a powerful multi-millionaire, his jet set friends and a school for unusual children. In this stunning Greek hideaway Georgia is hired as a teacher, but as she gets to know the children and their unconventional parents she becomes ensnared in a deadly international mystery. Our not-so hapless heroine must survive a series of bizarre brushes with death, but also deal with the attentions of a strangely charming man – is he really the wickedest man on the island? Somebody certainly wants her gone as she inches closer and closer to uncovering the truth about Sweden’s death . . . Joan Aiken reveals a strong heroine, a breathtaking backdrop and shocking plot twists – The Butterfly Picnic has all the elements of a holiday romance with a dark underside of suspense.
Castle Barebane
by Joan Aiken'Joan Aiken writes superbly, with a force, a colour and strength of imagination that one encounters all too rarely today. I loved every moment of it.' London Daily TelegraphStrong and independent Vahalla Montgomery, a heroine straight out of a Henry James novel, abandons her New York career as a journalist to search for her half-brother in Joan Aiken’s gothic novel, Castle Barebane.Wishing to escape from her pretentious New York fiancé, Valla is happy to have an excuse to travel to England, only to discover that her half-brother and his wife have disappeared from their London home – leaving their young two children all alone. Finding Victorian London a gloomy and sinister place, haunted by a series of Ripper style murders, Valla takes the children up to Scotland to a bleak family property known as Castle Barebane. In this Gothic ruin, perched on the edge of a cliff, the mystery surrounding her missing brother only gets darker, and more terrifying . . . This unforgettable tale of love, loss, and human nature is brought to life by Joan Aiken’s vivid story-telling and gripping plot. If you love Virginia Andrews or Nicola Cornick, Joan Aiken should certainly be your next read.
The Cockatrice Boys
by Joan Aiken"What does a cockatrice enjoy most for dinner? Anyone it can find." So the alarmed inhabitants of England discover when a plague of monsters--known as cockatrices--invade their country and begin gobbling them up. They must be stopped! A plucky band of survivors dubbed the Cockatrice Corps--including youngsters Dakin and Sauna--decide to fight back. But how? A rollicking adventure filled with breathtaking twists and turns, The Cockatrice Boys is Joan Aiken at her comic best.But there is also a powerful message in her only full length Sci- Fi (or even Cli-Fi!) YA novel as Joan Aiken imagines the result of human folly, in an earlier version of global warming, with the hole created in the ozone layer becoming a channel for evil to arrive on earth as an invasion of monstrous creatures. Joan Aiken believed in the power of the imagination, and using stories to prepare us for our future. In The Cockatrice Boys she wrote:"People need stories...to remind them that reality is not only what we can see or smell or touch. Reality is in as many layers as the globe we live on itself, going inwards to a central core of red-hot mystery, and outwards to unguessable space. People's minds need detaching, every now and then, from the plain necessities of daily life. People need to be reminded of these other dimensions above us and below us. Stories do that." "Besides being a daringly original, funny, scary, and morally instructive book, it also contains one of the strongest statements of the purpose of fantasy stories and fairy tales . . . This book was excellent, I highly recommend it . . . buy it now!" Mugglenet.com"Readers will be reminded of Alice in Wonderland . . . and the movie trilogy Star Wars" School Library Journal"This one is a real page-turner - as usual for Aiken - and sometimes really quite sinister, with a lot of gallows humour. It's suitable for all adults and most children... just as creepy as anything by M.R. James" Amazon Reviewer"Like all Aiken's best work, there is a deeply scary, nightmare thread running through this book, which makes it thrilling and involving for older readers and adults ...but the monsters are especially entertaining - drawn from Lewis Carroll, ancient mythology, and even Monty Python, they are scary and funny at the same time. A brilliant book" Amazon Reviewer
The Embroidered Sunset
by Joan Aiken'Miss Aiken’s book is immensely enjoyable – her gift for gothic romantic charm is as effectively deployed as ever' TLSLucy Culpepper doesn’t take no for an answer. An aspiring pianist she dreams of being taught by the renowned Max Benovek and will defy all odds – life threatening illness, a missing great aunt, and a disgruntled uncle – to achieve it.After finding out her Uncle Wilbie has used up her college fund, Lucy discovers a selection of enchantingly beautiful paintings in the attic. Being the miserly man he is, Wilbie wants to keep any possible profits for these paintings and bargains on sending Lucy to England to find the artist – Great-aunt Fennel. Knowing Benovek lives in London she snaps up the opportunity and undertakes the adventure of a lifetime. But though Benovek proves easy to find and immediately takes Lucy to heart, she sets off to Yorkshire only to find that her old aunt Fennel has vanished. Lucy’s search entangles her in a mystery of murder and deceit . . . can they discover who is the real aunt Fennel?Awardwinning author Joan Aiken brings a shocking finale to a witty and entertaining plot full of unexpected twists and turns in modern suspense novel, The Embroidered Sunset.
Fantastic Fables
by Joan AikenThis final collection of Joan Aiken's stories, taken from nearly sixty years of her writing career, is rooted in the classic fables and fairy tales familiar to us all, but which she has brought up to date by adding her own voice, and a touch of that mysterious added ingredient that makes you return to them again and again, at any age. They range from fantastic fairy tales to science fiction, from a future where the sun no longer shines thanks to human folly, to one where all the best words are kept locked away in a forbidden forest . . . they take us to lands that could be from our own past, where we can call upon magical friends like the mysterious Miss Samphire, or long lost magic spells to save a castle from Viking attack. These are absolutely timeless tales, for as she said:'They come from nowhere, and they are aimed at nobody's ear; or rather they are aimed at the ear of anybody who happens to pass by just at that moment'
Foul Matter
by Joan AikenI have been on nodding terms with death since age nineteen. Death holds precious little mystery for me. During the last sixteen years I have eaten death for breakfast . . .For accomplished writer and chef Clytie Churchill suffering and love come hand in hand. The life of each person she loves seems to come to a desperate end – sickness, suicide, death by drowning, orphan and widower Clytie has grieved through it all. During a long night reminiscing in a remote French Chateau she resolves to throw out all this Foul Matter – like the old proofs of a finished book.But there is still one mystery to solve – when she learns there is a chance that little Finn, her dead husband’s son, could have survived the sinking of his father’s boat Clytie seeks out lawyer and ex-lover Anthony to help her track him down.Awardwinning author Joan Aiken touches upon love and death with a thoughtfulness and courage that makes Foul Matter a romantic suspense novel like no other.
A Ghostly Gallery
by Joan AikenThe stories in A Ghostly Gallery were written over a period of sixty years, the whole length of Joan Aiken's writing career; some appeared in her very first collections of what her father Conrad Aiken called "Twentieth century Fairy stories for the young of all ages." Stories include A Roomful of Leaves, where a boy escapes an unbearable family and disappears into the Elizabethan past, and the luminously uplifting Watkyn Comma about a ghost mouse who rescues a lonely heroine. These stories often inspired by dreams and myths are written to comfort and console. Some appeared in anthologies, such as a Pan Ghost Book, or in her own collections for younger readers, which came out in England and America. As she moved away from overtly scary stories towards the end of her life, these are her gentler tales of mystery and imagination. Two of the stories have not previously appeared in an Aiken collection.Dancing in the Air, and Lungewater
The Haunting of Lamb House
by Joan Aiken"LAMB HOUSE is in Rye, an ancient town of East Sussex, England. It is very much a real place, even a famous one, yet The Haunting of Lamb House is as elusive to review as it must have been to write. It is safe to say that no one but Joan Aiken could have written it, not only because she was born in Rye and has the town in her bones as it were, but also because she has the power -- shown in her other books -- of evoking strange, often eerie events of the past and making other times, places and people vividly alive. This book goes further: She has taken the real history of Lamb House and interwoven happenings that are purely imaginary, working so skillfully that even those who have lived there can hardly tell which is which!"So wrote novelist Rumer Godden, who also lived in Lamb House. She went on:"For those who do not sense such things, The Haunting of Lamb House is a most skillful and intriguing interweaving of fact and fiction; to those who do, it is a memorable evocation. In either case it is a little masterpiece."Lamb House in Joan Aiken's birth town of Rye in Sussex is said to be haunted. This is her story of what might have happened to cause the haunting: using the imagined diary of an earlier Mayor of Rye, Toby Lamb, whose father built the handsome Georgian house, and later episodes that might have occurred during the occupancy of two of its famous literary tenants - Henry James and E.F. Benson.Joan Aiken was born in another haunted house owned by her father Conrad Aiken: Jeake's House, just around the corner in Mermaid Street, Rye, which she also wrote about in Return to Harken House."Joan Aiken has written a clever book, kindling a whole world of feeling out of small macabre details, presenting to the senses a series of apprehensions of reality which seem to touch a completeness beyond themselves. An impressive achievement; I shivered as I admired" Robert Nye, The Guardian"Joan Aiken's artful web of truth and fancy is divided into three histories of haunting - the first employs Aiken's considerable skill in a vivid evocative rendering of the old town of Rye when the house was built...followed by the twenty years of Henry James' residence. The end is worth waiting for...where E.F.Benson encounters hideous apparitions and even an exorcism in the last enthralling twenty pages" Miranda Seymour, T.L.S."Aiken has conjured up a deliciously scary ghost story...her mastery of style serves her well in the creation of three separate voices. Those familiar with Henry James's writing especially The Turn of The Screwwill derive special enjoyment from this novel, but there are shivers enough for any reader willing to acknowledge the possibility of ghosts and the reality of evil" U.S. Library Journal"In three interlocking ghost stories this veteran British novelist places a fictional haunting within the history of a real house, and displays a masterly way with several contrasting narrative styles, sympathetically evoking some ghostly presences...the wayward spirit of the house and the growing number of literary presences which gradually take possession" Publisher's Weekly
Night Fall
by Joan AikenWhen Meg Frazer's actress mother is killed in a Hollywood accident, nineteen-year-old Meg finds it hard to adapt to life in Britain with her cold, distant father . . . and at night she is haunted by a strange dream of a face which she is sure has something to do with her past.Meg follows a clue from the past to a remote Cornish Village. There she becomes involved in a nightmare web of terror and suspense . . . She meets a young man called Toby, who is different from her staid fiancé, but is he wrapped up in the secrets is unravelling?
Return to Harken House
by Joan AikenIn the late 1930's as the threat of war is building in Germany, twelve year old Julia arrives to spend the summer with her famous playwright father, only to find herself alone with Trudl, her Austrian stepmother. With Trudl preoccupied by the plight of her fellow countrymen in Europe, Julia retreats into the scary Gothic novels left behind by her older siblings, and becomes haunted by dreams of Joshua Harken, the notorious alchemist who built the 17th century house, and then disappeared, accused of murder. Even after she joins forces with local boy Tim Bellyap to investigate the stories of Joshua's ghost, she is afraid to tell anybody about the terrifying voices coming unbidden from somewhere inside her chest... In a compelling exploration of loneliness and adolescent insecurities, peopled by ghosts from the old house, this is the powerful story of Julia's awakening from her nightmare world.Also published as Voices, and set in Joan Aiken's own supposedly haunted childhood home, Jeake's House in Rye, Sussex, this Y.A. ghost story draws on some of her own childhood memories to create an unusual thriller. "When reduced to its essence, Julia's story may not be so very different from that of Aiken's Wolves Chronicles heroine Dido Twite: each girl must cope with a distant, unreliable father and learn to survive in a world peopled with self-absorbed adults. It is the exploration of these issues, even more than the fine storytelling, which makes this novel so compelling" Publisher's Weekly"Joan Aiken is the godsend to children who are at the age when they read as if there were no tomorrow" Washington Post"An entertaining read, for readers who like to read suspenseful ghost stories with a hint of real menace. The ghostly elements of this story are nicely mirrored by the historical menace of the times, as Julia ruminates on the dangers of Hitler, whom she sees as a sort of spider, spreading his web out over Europe" Goodreads reviewer
The Scream
by Joan AikenWhen Davey and his family moved to the city from the island of Muckle Burra off the coast of Scotland, they left his grandmother behind. But now his parents are dead-after a car accident that left Davey confined to a wheelchair-and Gran has moved in to take care of him and his sister, Lu-Lyn. But Lu-Lyn believes that both she and Gran are "Ridders" who have strange, dark powers and must return to the island... or has a dangerous force already followed them here?Davey must embark on a terrifying journey that will reveal the true secret of his grandmother's rare gift-and the limitless power of his own potential.Joan Aiken mixes myth and magic in this mysterious short novel inspired by the Munch painting, The Scream."An eerie story from this bestselling children's author: 'Superbly chilling...this is one of her best" Independent on Sunday "A tense, exciting and disturbing new story from Joan Aiken, whose magical, fantastic and supernatural books for children are among the best ever written" World of Books"A prolific and much-beloved children's author, Joan Aiken is perhaps best known for her classic "Gothic" adventures, chief among them The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Midnight is a Place. The Scream, which features Edvard Munch's famous painting of the same name, was written later in the author's career, and makes for an agreeable "shivery" read" LibraryThing"Joan Aiken, one of the most brilliant children's writers of her generation, delivers a dark and potent reading experience in this short, disturbing story. After their parents' fatal accident, David and his sister live with their grandmother, a fearsome woman who possesses the power of the Evil Eye. Gran's mysterious links to the old legends and magic of a remote Scottish island seem destined to lead to another tragedy" Amazon Review"Joan Aiken is just ridiculously talented in terms of the scope of her writing and this is truly demonstrated by her ability to create a chilling and compelling narrative in such a short book" Goodreads Review
The Shadow Guests (A Puffin Book)
by Joan AikenAfter the mysterious disappearance of his mother and older brother, Cosmo is sent away to live with his father's eccentric cousin, and to a strange school where he is lost and lonely among his unfriendly classmates. Luckily he can escape at weekends to the peace of his cousin's ancient mill house, and the shadowy companions only he can see. But then he learns about the family curse, with which his visitors from the past seem to be connected. The 'shadow guests' welcome Cosmo's help but are their increasingly menacing activities linked to his own problems?
The Shoemaker's Boy: The Shoemaker's Boy (Gripping Tales #4)
by Joan AikenAs Jem, the Shoemaker's boy, works at night in his father's shop he has three strange visitors asking for some silver keys. Jem must keep the silver keys safe, but how...?
The Shoemaker's Boy: Gripping Tales (Gripping Tales)
by Joan AikenAs Jem, the Shoemaker's boy, works at night in his father's shop he has three strange visitors asking for some silver keys. Jem must keep the silver keys safe, but how...?
The Silence of Herondale (Murder Room Ser.)
by Joan AikenA child in danger, an isolated house - and a killer on the loose...'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book ReviewSnow-covered fields and moors stretch away on all sides of Herondale House. Despite rumours of an escaped killer on the run, Deborah Lindsay knows that she must control her terror - she has a young charge, 13-year-old prodigy Carreen, to care for.But the isolated Yorkshire farmhouse already holds the terrible secret of one death - and an increasing number of sinister 'accidents' lead Deborah to wonder how long it would be before evil strikes again ...'A splendidly romantic first thriller' Times Literary Supplement
Siren Stories
by Joan AikenThese stories which have never been brought together before are taken from Joan Aiken's earliest writing years in the 1950s and 1960s when she was working for the English short story magazine, Argosy where they were first published. They demonstrate her wide ranging stylistic ability, with subjects as diverse as a rented apartment that comes with a resident swan, a man who buys a girl in a crystal ball, an invisible man-eating tiger, or a psychiatric patient who can always, sometimes unfortunately, conjure up a 93 London bus. All these ideas seem to pour out of an endless imagination, making bold use of eccentric and unexpected settings and characters, and at the same time demonstrating an evident delight in parodying a variety of literary styles from gothic to comedy, fantasy to folk tales selected from her incredible reading background. But Joan Aiken always repudiated the suggestion that she was "a born storyteller" she would always argue furiously that it was a craft, like oil painting or cabinet making that she had learned, practiced and developed over the years. She described this period of her life as a single-minded engagement with the writer's craft; and her grasp of the short story form as the foundation of her literary career. What is far from apparent from these wildly inventive and freewheeling tales, is that this was in fact a bitterly difficult period of Joan Aiken's life, when not long after the end of the Second World War she was left widowed and homeless with two young children. Having made the brave decision to try and support herself and her family by writing, she applied for a job on this popular short story magazine. In many ways, as she often said subsequently, this period spent working at Argosy could not have been bettered, both as a wonderful distraction and consolation during a bad time, and as an unbeatable apprenticeship in the craft of writing.
The Song Of Mat And Ben
by Joan AikenThere is eerie trouble once again in the Cornish village of St Boan, often known as Thunder's Pocket. Some hundred-year-old water pipes are being replaced and the digging has disturbed the ghosts of the past, namely the twins Matthew and Ben Pernel who were killed in mysterious circumstances and their musician father blamed. The three are now trying to be reunited but less innocent forces are also at work and the present townspeople are involved as the unhappy incidents of a hundred years ago are relived. Aunt Lal calls on her nephew Ned to help. She believes only he can bring the Pernels together again and thus truly bury the past. But even Ned is not immune to the horrors of the disturbed spirits. A thrilling sequel to In Thunder's Pocket by this prestigious author.
Stoneywish and other chilling stories: A Bloomsbury Reader (Bloomsbury Readers)
by Joan AikenA brilliant collection of spine-chilling tales by Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. From a mysterious traveller who leaves an injured horse with a stranger, to a garden plant that slowly creeps into a house during a thunderstorm and a man who comes across two angry forces in the middle of a forest, this chilling collection of stories will have readers jumping at bumps in the night.Much-loved author Joan Aiken is best known for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and the Arabel and Mortimer books. This brilliant collection has spooky black-and-white illustrations by TBC and is perfect for children who are developing as readers. The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with brilliant books to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2, with book-banded stories by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence, covering a wide range of genres and topics. With charming illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for reading both in the classroom and at home. For more information visit www.bloomsburyguidedreading.com.Book Band: Dark BlueIdeal for ages 8+
Stoneywish and other chilling stories: A Bloomsbury Reader (Bloomsbury Readers)
by Joan AikenA brilliant collection of spine-chilling tales by Joan Aiken, author of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. From a mysterious traveller who leaves an injured horse with a stranger, to a garden plant that slowly creeps into a house during a thunderstorm and a man who comes across two angry forces in the middle of a forest, this chilling collection of stories will have readers jumping at bumps in the night.Much-loved author Joan Aiken is best known for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and the Arabel and Mortimer books. This brilliant collection has spooky black-and-white illustrations by TBC and is perfect for children who are developing as readers. The Bloomsbury Readers series is packed with brilliant books to get children reading independently in Key Stage 2, with book-banded stories by award-winning authors like double Carnegie Medal winner Geraldine McCaughrean and Waterstones Prize winner Patrice Lawrence, covering a wide range of genres and topics. With charming illustrations and online guided reading notes written by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), this series is ideal for reading both in the classroom and at home. For more information visit www.bloomsburyguidedreading.com.Book Band: Dark BlueIdeal for ages 8+
Weather Witches and Wise Women
by Joan AikenIn this new collection taken from her very first short stories, written while she and her young family were living in a bus, shortly after the end of the second world war, up until her most recent, Joan Aiken draws on the characters of women from folk and fairy tales who may have had to keep their own light under a bushel, but who use their understanding of the ways of the world, and often their sense of humour to help not just themselves, but others who are lonely and unhappy. Often delightfully tongue in cheek, Joan Aiken presents stories of shop girls who can sell you a pinch of weather, or lonely spinster piano teachers who can confront the devil and his pop group in a dark alley. Old ladies, browbeaten wives, silent mothers, unhappy daughters - all are given a chance to speak their thoughts, and even practise a little magic in Joan Aiken's modern folk tales, particularly in her last collection, called Mooncake. Stories from her whole writing career are included in this collection.
Handling the Undead
by John Ajvide LindqvistIn the city morgue, the dead are waking up... What do they want? What everybody wants: to come home'Reminiscent of Stephen King at his best. Best read by sunlight' Independent on SundaySomething peculiar is happening. Stockholm is enduring a heatwave, electrical appliances cannot be switched off and everyone has a blinding headache. Then the terrible news breaks - in the city morgue, the dead are waking...David always knew his wife was far too good for him. But he never knew how lost he'd be without her until tonight when her car hit an elk. Now she's gone and he's alone. But when he goes to identify her body, she begins to move. It's terrifying, but it gives David a strange kind of hope.Across the city, grieving families find themselves able to see their loved-ones one last time. But are these creatures really them? How long can this last? And what does it all mean?
Harbour
by John Ajvide LindqvistThey only stopped watching her for a matter of minutes. That was all it took.'This is a third consecutive masterpiece from an author who deserves to be as much a household name as Stephen King' - SFX Magazine It was a beautiful winter's day. Anders, his wife and their feisty six-year-old, Maja, set out across the ice of the Swedish archipelago to visit the lighthouse on Gavasten. There was no one around, so they let her go on ahead. And she disappeared, seemingly into thin air, and was never found. Two years later, Anders is a broken alcoholic, his life ruined. He returns to the archipelago, the home of his childhood and his family. But all he finds are Maja's toys and through the haze of memory, loss and alcohol, he realizes that someone - or something - is trying to communicate with him. Soon enough, his return sets in motion a series of horrifying events which exposes a mysterious and troubling relationship between the inhabitants of the remote island and the sea.
I Always Find You
by John Ajvide LindqvistTHE NEW SPINE-CHILLING HORROR FROM THE AUTHOR OF LET THE RIGHT ONE IN**'A compelling treatise on loneliness, alienation and the evil that lurks in every heart' Guardian Book of the Month**Moving into a dilapidated apartment block in Stockholm, a young man hopes to make his living as a magician. But this building contains strange secrets - and his neighbours seem, one by one, to succumb to the strange pull in the basement. Behind that door, they can be transported to ecstasy - and the price of entry is just a little blood. At first. I Always Find You is a horror story drawn from Lindqvist's own past. The trials of being young, alone and vulnerable slip through his masterful hands and transform, like magic, into a macabre tale of human connection and the evil we carry inside.
I Am Behind You
by John Ajvide LindqvistA supernatural superthriller from the author of Let the Right One InMolly wakes her mother to go to the toilet. The campsite is strangely blank. The toilet block has gone. Everything else has gone too. This is a place with no sun. No god.Just four families remain. Each has done something to bring them here - each denies they deserve it. Until they see what's coming over the horizon, moving irrevocably towards them. Their worst mistake. Their darkest fear.And for just one of them, their homecoming.This gripping conceptual horror takes you deep into one of the most macabre and unique imaginations writing in the genre. On family, on children, Lindqvist writes in a way that tears the heart and twists the soul. I Am Behind You turns the world upside down and, disturbing, terrifying and shattering by turns, it will suck you in.