Joan Aiken died in 2004 but is still one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors. She wrote more than 100 books and is most famed for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase chronicles and also The Serial Garden, which stars the fabulous Armitage family. Here Joan’s daughter Lizza shares some extraordinary treasures, including a snippet of The Haunted Couch which Joan wrote when she was a little girl!
Ever since she was a small girl, my mother, Joan Aiken, wanted to be a writer. Her mother Jessie was her biggest fan, and encouraged her to read and write from an early age. It wasn’t long before she started writing her own stories, and creating an imaginary world that stayed with her all her lifePhotograph: Joan Aiken Estate- The Serial Garden has already been published in America, and even in Korea - as you can see from this illustration showing Joan’s imaginary village and many of the extraordinary characters who live in it. In one corner you can see a sad princess in The Serial Garden – a cardboard garden, cut out from the back of cereal packets which magically comes to life day by day...Photograph: Joan Aiken Estate
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