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  • Published: 31 December 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409014904
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

Black Hearts in Battersea




Black Hearts in Battersea originally written in l965 is the second title in the classic `Wolves of Willoughby Chase' series, now reissued with a stunning new cover.

"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 . . .?

  • Published: 31 December 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409014904
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 256

About the author

Joan Aiken

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.

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Praise for Black Hearts in Battersea

A fantastic adventure story . . . Highly entertaining

Sunday Telegraph

A writer of wild humour and unrestrained imagination

Oxford Companion to Children's Literature

Joan Aiken is a marvel

Philip Pullman, Guardian

Joan Aiken is such a spellbinder

Evening Standard