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Limbo Lodge by Joan Aiken

Red Fox Books, 2000, 222 p.

After her adventures in The Stolen Lake, Dido Twite is trying to make her way home to England on the Royal Navy ship HMS Thrush. She gets diverted on to a smaller ship going to the island of Aratu to help look for Lord Herodsfoot, an envoy searching out games for the ailing King James III back in Britain. On board she meets the ship’s Doctor, Talisman van Linde, whom we later find is actually a woman, Jane Talisman Kirlingshaw, born on the island but miraculously preserved from a fall from a precipice by landing on a Dutch trading ship being swept past in a tsunami following an earthquake. Talisman was subsequently brought to Europe where she trained as a doctor. Her presence is essential to the plot as she is the daughter of its Sovran King John (once known as John Kirlingshaw) and his long dead island wife Erato.

On their way to Limbo Lodge, the palace where King John has lived kept almost in seclusion since Erato died, obstacles are put in the way of Dido and Talisman both, as the King’s brother Manoel Roy seeks to prevent Talisman succeeding as titular ruler since he desires the position for himself. The islanders they meet, who by and large are helpful, are presented sympathetically by Aiken, as are their beliefs.

This is the longest book so far of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase sequence but never drags. Aiken draws her characters sparingly but effectively.

 

Pedant’s corner:- “feel even dryer” (drier,) “where she had gown up” (grown up,) “Mr Ruiz’ residence” (Ruiz’s; plus other instances of Ruiz’,) “a trading schooner who will receive her cargo” (schooner which will receive.) “None of the group were aware of” (None … was aware…,) “to take anything with them Plates, bowls, baskets of fruit” (needs a full stop after ‘them’.)

The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken

Puffin, 2016, 369 p, plus 2 p Map and 12 p Extras.

This is set in Aiken’s world of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase where the Stuart King James III is the ruler of Great Britain, but being a kind of prequel does not feature most of the characters from those stories.

Our protagonist here is young Owen Hughes who lives in the town of Pennygaff in Wales. His mother is dead and his father serving in the navy somewhere in Asia. As a result he stays with his grandfather, the keeper of the town’s museum whose most precious holding is the golden harp of Teirtu.

Pennygaff lies under the lea of the local mountain Fig-Hat Ben which makes a sound when the wind is up, hence the book’s title. It is also rumoured to be the home of small, possibly magical, humans who are only occasionally glimpsed.

The local laird, Lord Malyn, wants the harp for himself but Owen’s grandfather disputes his title to it since it belongs to the last survivor of an order of monks. Malyn sets two criminals, Prigman and Bilk – who converse throughout in thieves’ cant – to steal the harp. Queering the pitch is the mysterious foreigner, The Seljuk of Rum, prone to speaking like a thesaurus. Sand somewhere in the neighbourhood, incapacitated by a hunting accident, is David James Charles Edward George Harold Richard Tudor-Stuart, the Prince of Wales. Who for some reason speaks in a kind of cod Scots.

Other notable characters are itinerant Tom Dando and his daughter Arabis who make their living by selling herbal remedies and the like and whom Owen met on his way to Wales from London.

When the harp is stolen from the museum Owen is kidnapped by Bilk and Prigman and given the blame for it. Many scrapes and adventures ensue including meetings with the clan who live secretly in the mountain and gave rise to the rumours of people living there. Their Middle-Eastern origins – they use camels for transport – tie them to The Seljuk of Rum.

The text deploys a lot of Welsh words but there is a glossary of them to be found among the Extras. The thieves’ cant might have been a hindrance to a young reader but context usually makes it obvious what is meant.

In these books we are never in any doubt as to who is good and who the baddies are. Aiken characterises the latter in just enough of an over the top way to ensure that while her heroes and heroines are all resourceful and competent they have to struggle to overcome them.

It’s all a jolly good romp and as is to be expected in YA fiction, all’s well that ends well.

Pedant’s corner:- “the castle of Balmoral” (in our timeline the royals did not acquire the Balmoral estate until the mid-nineteenth century and then built the castle there,) Yehemelek (elsewhere always Yehimelek,) “there were numerous opening leading out of the big cave” (openings.) “‘I hope your lassie wisna come to harm’” (willna come to harm.) In glossary of welsh words; perwinkle (periwinkle.)

Emma Watson by Joan Aiken & Jane Austen

Pan, 2022, 254 p

This book is adorned with a roundel on its front cover proclaiming “JANE AUSTEN’s unfinished novel completed by JOAN AIKEN.” This is at best a misdirection and, more bluntly, not true. I have read the fragment of The Watsons which Jane Austen had written before her death and not one word of it appears here. To be sure events which took place in it are referred to but the action of this novel takes place after that of the fragment. It would be more true to say that Emma Watson is inspired by Jane Austen. However, what it definitely is not, is a work by Jane Austen. It is firmly Aiken’s creation, though she has adopted some of the characters form the fragment and added a few of her own.

None of the feeling of Austen is present here. Situations, social arrangements and prejudices maybe, but the details and especially the dialogue do not have the Austen ring.

This is not to decry the novel. As a novel it is fine enough, if a little derivative of Austen (which is, of course, to be expected,) but it is all too overwrought, too busy yet still a little perfunctory with its sources, certainly not inventive enough. Too many familiar circumstances from Austen’s work appear, a girl taken in by her parents’ sibling, a haughty lady from a stately home, relatives in London helpful to a point, an eligible Navy officer away for a prolonged period, the preoccupation with marriage possibilities – though admittedly that is an Austen constant. (But in this context I doubt an incestuous prospective union – albeit its participants are unaware of their unfortunate connection – would have flowed from Austen’s pen.)

Read this as a Regency novel by all means, but not as representative of Austen.

Pedant’s corner:- Bluestocking (did this word exist in Regency times?) “Red Coats” (why the capitalisation? ‘redcoats’ – red coat was used two lines later.) Edwards’ (Edwards’s,) Brightelmstone, (this old name for Brighton is usually spelled ‘Brighthelmstone’. Brighton, though, had been mentioned earlier in the book,) “salicylate of sodium, with iodide of potassium” (I doubt these names would have been in use in Regency times: both sodium and potassium were only isolated in 1807.)

The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken

Jonathan Cape, 1981, 270 p.

This picks up the story of Dido Twite after Night Birds on Nantucket, the third in Aiken’s ‘Wolves’ trilogy. She embarks on His Majesty James III’s* ship Thrush en route for Britain. The ship is diverted to South America by a message requiring Captain Hughes to respond to a request for help from Queen Gunevra of New Cumbria. This South America was colonised by ancient Britons when the Saxons invaded Britannia. New Cumbria’s two neighbouring kingdoms are called Lyonesse and Hy Brasil.

Dido is befriended by the Thrush’s steward Mr Holystone but Captain Hughes has little time for her. Nevertheless, on landfall Hughes wants Dido to accompany him to the Queen’s court. New Cumbria is a strange place where girl children between five and fifteen are absent – said to be prey to flying creatures named Aurocs, so many girls are sent away to avoid this fate. Queen Gunevra desires the British to persuade King Mabon to restore her lake (which he removed as ice-blocks in retaliation for the abduction of his daughter Elen on her return from education in England.) Gunevra expects Dido to claim to be Elen to satisfy him. She wants the lake back so that her husband will be able to sail back to her across it, something she has been awaiting for hundreds of years. This referencing of the story of King Arthur is exploited further in the rest of the tale during which Dido as usual meets people who wish to do her harm.

The characters tend to the cartoonish but its intended readership (YA readers) will not mind about that.

*In Scotland this would have been James VIII.

Pedant’s corner:- A fair bit of the dialogue was in non-standard English. Otherwise, nothing to report.

Night Birds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken

Puffin, 1969, 172 p.

Night Birds on Nantucket cover

At the start of this follow-up to Black Hearts in Battersea, itself a sequel of sorts to The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Dido Twite has been comatose for four months, fed by one of the crew on the whaling ship Sarah Casket, which rescued her from drowning.

On her awakening she is asked by Captain Casket to befriend his now motherless daughter Dutiful Penitence (Pen) who is too scared to come on deck and hides away in her cabin. Dido soon finds another member of the crew, Mr Slighcarp (a surname readers of the series know well,) acting suspiciously and keeping secret the presence on ship of a mystery woman.

After following a pink whale (the captain’s obsession) from the Arctic down past the Galapagos and round into the Atlantic, Dido and Pen, now firm friends, are dropped off at the ship’s home port in Nantucket, where it has been arranged for the captain’s sister Tribulation to look after Pen for a while. Readers familiar with the series know where this domestic situation is going by now but perhaps its target younger audience might not. Excitement ensues though, when our two young friends come across a Hanoverian plot to kill King James III.

This is wholesome fare, as befits its intended YA audience but also eminently readable for older booklovers. Dido and Pen are agreeably portrayed – though some of the adults’ characterisations are a little over the top.

The book is decorated at intervals with illustrations (one of which is unfortunately placed one page too early.)

Pedant’s corner:- “The whole crew were trying to…” (the whole crew was trying to,) imposter (I much prefer impostor,) sculduggery (I know Dido does not speak in received pronunciation but the spelling of words she does speak ‘normally’ should not be altered; skulduggery,) trapesing (traipsing,) “‘when you Papa’s at sea’” (your Papa’s.) In the ‘About the author’; “the Amercian writer” (American.)

Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken

Illustrated by Pat Marriott.

Vintage, 2012, 290 p.

 Black Hearts in Battersea cover

This is a sequel of sorts to The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. However it does not follow the fortunes of the two main characters from that book but rather those of their friend Simon. He has received a message from Dr Field containing an invitation to take up a place at a school of drawing in London and to lodge in the same house as himself. However, when Simon reaches Rose Alley no-one admits to knowing the Doctor. He was first met there by Dido Twite, a perky child, though neglected by her parents. It soon becomes apparent that underhand activities are taking place in the house. Mr Twite sings Hanoverian songs (in this setting the Stuarts were never displaced from the British throne that second time) and Simon inadvertently stumbles on a stash of guns in the basement.

In the meantime Simon has enrolled in the Art School and encountered Justin, the heir to the Dukedom of Battersea, and a very poor artist, despite artistic ability running in the family. Also in Simon’s orbit is Sophie, his friend from the orphanage back home, who is now the Duchess’s lady’s maid. The Duke is an eccentric who befriends Simon through the medium of chess and asks him to clean one of his paintings. This, it turns out, has a representation of a Battersea ancestor to whom both Sophie and Simon bear a strong resemblance. It is immediately obvious where this is going and Aiken does not disappoint. In its working out, as befits a YA novel, we have breathless incident galore – a fire in a box at the opera, a sinking barge, shanghaiing, hot–air balloons, possibly poisoned mince pies, a gunpowder plot – before the villains are unmasked and the world brought to rights. (Well, most of it.) The characters are necessarily broad-brush but recognisable human types nevertheless. Yet quite why a putative James III (even if he would have been the eighth King of Scotland of that name) would be described as a Scottish gentleman, have a Scottish accent and speech patterns is beyond me. He would have been brought up as an English gentleman.

The book is slightly marred by its illustrations being misplaced so that they often occur just before the incident which they depict but it is all good fun.

Pedant’s corner:- “to show this good intentions” (his,) hoboy (hautboy. I suppose the spelling “hoboy” may have been adopted to avoid flummoxing Aiken’s younger readers but it is still wrong,) a missing full stop, topsy-turvey (topsy-turvy,) “the whole party were in charity with one another (the whole party was,) knit (knitted.)

The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter

Virago, 1998, 202 p.

The Magic Toyshop cover

Fifteen year-old Melanie feels on the cusp of womanhood and wonders to herself how having sex or being married will feel. Her cosy middle-class existence is disrupted the night after she tries on her mother’s wedding dress – damaging it in the process – as in what she interprets as a piece of (un)sympathetic magic she receives news her parents have both died on the trip they had been on. Along with brother Jonathon and much younger sister Victoria she is packed off to live with Uncle Philip, their mother’s brother, who is married to Margaret Jowle, in turn rendered dumb ever since her wedding, communicating by means of chalk and blackboard. This new home is a constrained environment, ruled by Philip with a frugal rod of iron, Margaret and her brothers Finn and Francis (whom she brought with her to the marital home) living in fear. Philip is a toy/puppetmaker and they live over the toyshop which gives the novel its title.

The book has an odd sensibility, tonally and atmospherically redolent of Dickens, with some relationship dynamics reminiscent of Joan Aiken’s The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but also containing faint echoes of The L-Shaped Room. The occasional references to such things as radios and other manifestations of (relative) modernity feel quite strange in comparison with the Victorian atmosphere which pervades the book even in the earlier chapters where Melanie is untroubled by straitened circumstances. This disjunction verges on magic realism as there is an aura of weirdness hanging over things throughout yet which never declares itself openly.

As the novel progresses Melanie’s revulsion to Finn’s lack of cleanliness and his interest in her is countered by her burgeoning awareness of sexuality. The twist near the end is one which I suspect neither Dickens nor Aiken would have dared essay though it might not have troubled Lynne Reid Banks.

Pedant’s corner:- “Scarborough-is-so-bracing” (in the posters it was Skegness that was so bracing,) focussed (focused.) “There were a number of shops” “There were a number of cake tins” (there was a number,) “some armless, some legless, same naked, some clothed,” (some naked,) “in two hundreds beds” (hundred,) “greasy Orientals” Vyella dress (Viyella,) tremulo (tremolo.) “The first of Jonathan’s wooden ships were up for sale” (the first was up for sale,) “in the butchers” (the butcher’s,) “open eyes of pure of colour” (has an “of” too many.) “She spread out her skirts and put shells into it” (skirts is plural; so, ‘put shells into them’,) pigmy (pygmy,) “who had laid in bed” (lain,) Aunt Margaret must have fried up everything friable in the larder” (fryable; “friable” means crumbly,) hiccoughing (hiccupping, the supposed resemblance to a cough is a misattribution,) “and she not sure” (and she was not sure,) a missing end quotation mark.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Illustrated by Pat Marriott. Vintage, 2012, 227 p.

The book is an altered history set in an early Nineteenth Century England. There is a Channel Tunnel mentioned in a prefatory Note and wolves roam the countryside. Apart from two instances (where they variously attack a stationary train and chase the main characters) plus the odd howl from far off the wolves are mainly an off-stage menace though. It is clearly aimed at a YA – or even younger – audience.

Bonnie Green is the daughter of the grand house Willoughby Chase. Her cousin Sylvia is coming to visit as her carer, Aunt Jane, is getting on. Bonnie’s mother is ailing and requires a trip to help cure her, naturally accompanied by her husband. The first requirement of a children’s adventure, the absence of parents, is hereby secured. The governess hired to look after them, Miss Slighcarp, a supposed distant relative, is the usual wicked creature, not content with mistreating the pair but also intent on defrauding Bonnie of her inheritance with the assistance of the forger Mr Grimshaw. Much Dickensian harsh schooling ensues but the plucky pair escape with the help of Simon, a local boy who lives in the woods. They make their way to London to enlist the services of Mr Gripe, the estate’s lawyer.

It all rattles along (as YA novels have to) but this leaves little time for anything but sketching each character. Best read as a young person I would think.

Pedant’s corner:- a missing comma before a piece of direct speech, backboards (context demands “blackboards”.)

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