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A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume... 'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review
About the author
Joan Aiken, English-born daughter of American poet Conrad Aiken, began her writing career in the 1950s. Working for
Argosy magazine as a copy editor but also as the anonymous author of articles and stories to fill up their pages, she was adept at inventing a wealth of characters and fantastic situations, and went on to produce hundreds of stories for
Good Housekeeping,
Vogue,
Vanity Fair and many other magazines. Some of those early stories became novels, such as
The Silence of Herondale, first published fifty years ago in 1964. Although her first agent famously told her to stick to short stories, saying she would never be able to sustain a full-length novel, Joan Aiken went on to win the
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for
The Whispering Mountain, and the Edgar Alan Poe award for her adult novel
Night Fall. Her best known children's novel,
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was acclaimed by
Time magazine as 'a genuine small masterpiece'. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature, and although best known as a children's writer, Joan Aiken wrote many adult novels, both modern and historical, with her trademark wit and verve. Many have a similar gothic flavour to her children's writing, and were much admired by readers and critics alike. As she said 'The only difference I can see is that children's books have happier endings than those for adults.' You have been warned . . .
Summary
A beautiful Cornish coastal village is the setting for a highly sinister conspiracy involving a kidnapped baby, mysterious monks and an almost irresistible new perfume... 'Joan Aiken's triumph with this genre is that she does it so much better than others' New York Times Book Review
