Joan Aiken

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this thrilling edition of The Shadow Guests.Following the double disappearance of his mother and older brother, Cosmo Curtoy is sent to live with his strange cousin in England.When he arrives, Cosmo decides to explore the ancient Mill House on his cousins' estate - where he meets the Mill's spirited guests. . .But can he trust them?Join Cosmo on this supernatural time-travelling adventure and break the Curtoy's curse!

In the small town of Pennygaff, the legendary Harp of Teirtu is found - and lost again. For young Owen Hughes and his friend Arabis, it is the start of a hair-raising race to save the harp from sinister Lord Malyn. As they struggle to keep it out of his hands, they are plunged into a wild adventure involving murder, kidnapping, and savage beasts.

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation - including this special edition of The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.It's 19th Century England, Good King James III is on the throne, and the whole country is ravaged by wolves which have migrated through the newly-opened Channel Tunnel.When young orphans Bonnie and Sylvia get caught by the governess, Miss Slighcarp - they need their wits and Simon the goose-boy - to escape unscathed.For Miss Slighcarp is more cruel and merciless than the wolves that surround the great house of Willoughby Chase. . .

There 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 Twite household, where Simon is lodging, seems particularly shifty. Before he even gets a chance to open his glistening new paints Simon stumbles right into the centre of a plot to kill the King. Will they save the king in time?BACKSTORY: Test your knowledge of Black Hearts in Battersea and play the name game.

Can Bonnie and Sylvia outwit the wicked Miss Slighcarp and her network of criminals, forgers and snitches?BACKSTORY: Find out a few things you didn't know about wolves and learn all about the wonderful world of the author.

From 'A Necklace of Raindrops' to 'The Patchwork Quilt', here are eight classic stories to treasure and enjoy. a house that stands on one leg - these are just some of the objects and characters that figure in these delightful stories.

Young Arabel's life is changed forever when her father, a taxi driver, brings home an injured bird he finds in the street. This wacky raven eats everything in sight, answers the telephone by squawking "Nevermore " and causes chaos wherever he goes--but Arabel loves her new feathered friend, whom she names Mortimer. This is the first volume of Arabel and Mortimer's adventures, brightened with hilarious illustrations by Quentin Blake.

Now eighteen, Felix sets out across the mountains of Spain to rescue three children kidnapped by their father. Along the way, he hopes to see his true love, Juana, who has entered a convent. But his rescue party is being followed, and Felix fears he and the children are being led into a trap.

After visiting his family in England, Felix is on his way back to Spain when he's shipwrecked off the coast of France. He is taken in by monks to recover from his ordeal--but it soon becomes clear to him that he is actually being held prisoner. Felix encounters an injured boy, Juan, on the grounds of the monastery and saves him from death. The two boys escape and continue on to Spain together--but a gang is pursuing Juan, and the journey is more dangerous than they imagined.

Dido Twite, heroine of Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket, is on her wildest adventure yet. Dido faces fire, flood, wild beasts and, ultimately, threat of execution in order to get the lake back.

Dido Twite is aboard the Thrush, trying to return to England after her adventures in America. But orders have been sent to find Lord Herodsfoot, said to be on Aratu, the Pacific 'Island of the Pearl Snakes'. On Aratu she is helped by spirit magic but also meets settlers who will stop at nothing to achieve their ends.

1832 - a period of English History that never happened. Good King James III is on the throne and the country is ravaged by wolves which have migrated through the newly-opened Channel Tunnel. When Sylvia and Bonnie (both orphans) fall into the hands of evil Miss Slighcarp, they must use all their wits to escape unscathed - for the governess is more cruel and merciless than the wolves that surround the great house of Willoughby Chase.

Dido Twite is waylaid by her father, the shady Abednego Twite, acting on instructions from his evil patron. How does hard-drinking Mrs Lily Bloodvessel figure in this intricate plot, with her cellar full of sleeping guttersnipes? Another rollercoasting story by Joan Aiken, in which Dido's scheming Pa finally receives his comeuppance.

While her friend Capt Hughes recovers from a carriage accident, Dido is marooned with the odd inhabitants of the Tegleaze estate. Soon suspicious things happen; a priceless possession is stolen, a boy kidnapped, a twin sister found and when Dido catches a glimpse of her rascally father in Petworth, she is sure she is in the midst of another wicked Hanoverian plot. Can she combat mass hypnotism, smugglers, and a gang of murderers to prevent the plot to put St Paul`s Cathedral in the River Thames?

"Simon paid off the driver and turned to follow Mrs Twite. But she seemed to have locked the door behind her and, as he rattled the latch unavailingly and then rapped the locker, something dark and suffocating was forced down over his head and a pair of hands gripped his throat."Simon, coming to London to study painting with his old friend Dr Field, finds he has vanished without trace. Determined to discover what lies behind his disappearance, Simon is trapped in a fiendish plot. Why has his landlord got guns in his cellar and how does one deal with his irrepressible daughter, Dido . . .?

Shipwrecked Dido Twite, picked up by a whaling ship, finds herself many miles from home and facing deep troubles. Sinister Miss Slighcarp, the governess from Willoughby Chase, makes a reappearance, this time is cahoots with Hanoverian plotters who have a dastardly plan in mind.

When Ned is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle in Thunder's Pocket, he's not very pleased. But from the moment a bird flies into the train carriage on his journey there, Ned realises this isn't going to be an ordinary seaside holiday. Has the eccentric sculptor, Marlot Corby, really put a curse on Ned's aunt?

'Joan Aiken writes superbly, with a force, a colour and strength of imagination that one encounters all too rarely today' – The TelegraphStrong and independent Valhalla 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 . . .Castle Barebane is an unforgettable tale of love, loss, and human nature is brought to life by Joan Aiken’s vivid story-telling and gripping plot. For fans of gothic mystery, and readers of Virginia Andrews or Nicola Cornick.

Rediscover the A Puffin Book series and bring the best-loved classics to a new generation – including this wonderful new edition of The Winter Sleepwalker and Other Stories.Join master storyteller Joan Aiken and illustrator extraordinaire Quentin Blake for eight original and wildly imaginative modern fairy tales.From Martian dinosaurs and eight-legged horses to a girl cursed to turn into a pink snake on Sundays, these weird and wonderful short stories weave folktale, fantasy and modernity into something entirely unexpected.Told with Aiken’s distinctive wit and brought to life by Blake’s marvellously atmospheric illustrations, these surreal, sublime and endlessly enjoyable tales are perfect for reading alone or together.