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’.)

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.