Dido And Pa

Description

The action of this book begins immediately after the end of The Cuckoo Tree when Dido Twite having foiled a Hanoverian attempt to slide St Paul's Cathedral into the Thames has assisted at the coronation of King Richard IV (son of James III) and returned to Sussex. Now she is kidnapped and her friends fear the worst - it looks as if fate has dealt her a final deadly blow- But Dido is not easily defeated!'Joan Aiken is such a spellbinder that it all rings true' - Evening Standard.

Joan Aiken was born in Sussex in 1924. She was the daughter of the American poet, Conrad Aiken; her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge, is also a novelist. Before joining the 'family business' herself, Joan had a variety of jobs, including working for the BBC, the United Nations Information Centre and then as features editor for a short story magazine. Her first children's novel, The Kingdom of the Cave, was published in 1960. Joan Aiken wrote over a hundred books for young readers and adults and is recognized as one of the classic authors of the twentieth century. Amanda Craig, writing in The Times, said, 'She was a consummate story-teller, one that each generation discovers anew.' Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first title, published in 1962 and awarded the Lewis Carroll prize. Both that and Black Hearts in Battersea have been filmed. Her books are internationally acclaimed and she received the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the United States as well as the Guardian Award for Fiction in this country for The Whispering Mountain. Joan Aiken was decorated with an MBE for her services to children's books. She died in 2004.

Joan Aiken is a marvel -- Philip Pullman * Guardian * A writer of wild humour and unrestrained imagination * Oxford Companion to Children's Literature * Rumbustious . . . The reader is entranced by Joan Aiken's language and imagination, grotesque characters, picturesque settings and hilarity * Writeaway.org.uk *