Arabel and Mortimer Stories

Joan Delano Aiken (1924-2004) was the daughter of the American poet, Conrad Aiken. 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 and 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. Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which The Wolves of Willoughby Chase was the first title, published in l962 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. In 1999 Joan Aiken was awarded an MBE for her services to children's books.

When Arabel's father drives his taxi home late one night he comes across 'a large black bird, with a hairy fringe around its beak.' He takes it home and, from that moment on, life is never the same again for the Jones family. Arabel's raven is called Mortimer - and he's one in a million. 'Nevermore!' he cries when astonished or upset, 'Down the hatch' he thinks before gobbling bowler hats, stairs, telephones. He dislikes flying except in emergencies, and with disaster-prone Mortimer around there are plenty of those. There are 6 hilarious stories in this classic collection by Joan Aiken and illustrator Quentin Blake including: ARABEL'S RAVEN; THE ESCAPED BLACK MAMBA; THE BREAD BIN; MORTIMER'S TIE; MORTIMER &THE SWORD EXCALILBUR and THE SPIRAL STAIR.