Limbo Lodge

Description

Dido Twite on board a ship bound for England is waylaid by a search for Lord Herodsfoot on the tropical island of Aratu. Aratu means the Island of Pearl Snakes in the Dilendi language and a bite from one of them can do for you in a brace of shakes. That is only one of many hazards encountered by Dido as she searches for the lost Lord reputedly to be found in Limbo Lodge. For who can she trust as she tramps across the island - and when she finally approached the lodge it hardly seems to be welcoming. 'Limbo Lodge was sited at the edge of the forest line, among clumps of clove and djeela trees, in a kind of wild garden. Over to the eastern boundary of this, the ground seemed to come to an abrupt stop; here, Dido guessed, was the Cliff of Death-'

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.

What I relish in particular is the swiftness of the telling, the vigour with which brilliant moments of perception seem to be improvised in the sheer delight of the onward rush of the story -- Philip Pullman * Guardian * A writer of wild humour and unrestrained imagination * Oxford Companion to Children's Literature * A consummate story teller * The Times * This is a racy tale with plenty of disgusting details -- Orna Mulcahy * The Irish Times *