Tag Archives: Joan Aiken

#WitchWeek2020 Day 3: The Graveyard Book

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

“It takes a graveyard to raise a child.” (back cover of The Graveyard Book, US edition) Appropriately for today, the Day of the Dead, we present you with a discussion of this year’s read-along book, a novel set in a cemetery. Four of us–Lory* … Continue reading →

Posted in Gothic, Witch Week | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

There’s more than one kind of wolf

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Lizzie Ross

Today’s Witch Week post, from my WW2019 co-host, Chris at Calmgrove, is all about the despicable and heinous, the selfish and greedy — the altogether dreadful villains of Joan Aiken’s Wolves Chronicles. Whether you know Aiken’s series well, or are … Continue reading →

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Girls Running from Houses…

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Lizzie Ross

Originally posted on Joan Aiken:
     What is behind all those fabulously lurid 1960s romance novel covers showing a beautiful young woman fleeing a dark, sinister house in the middle of nowhere? Not what you might expect…! Although the cover…

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Summer omnibus, part 2

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Lizzie Ross

More from my summer’s reading: Aaron Starmer, The Riverman (2014). In upstate New York, near the Canadian border, Alistair Cleary lives a normal life of taking dangerous dares and avoiding nosy neighbors. Then Fiona Loomis, not yet 13, asks him to write her biography. She tells him about an … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Classic, Graphic Novel, Historical fiction, short stories, YA Lit | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Found it!

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Lizzie Ross

It must be tough to compete for attention with people like Henry James and characters like EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia. I went to Rye today, specifically to visit the former home of James, Benson and others, but also to look … Continue reading →

Posted in Time travel, Travel | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The anxiety of influence

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Lizzie Ross

… or, why I love Joan Aiken’s books, even though sometimes her writing is so good it makes me cry. I love to read. Given an option, I’ll choose reading over any other activity. If I were the sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Am writing, reading | Tagged | 5 Comments