I thoroughly enjoyed The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken as part of the British Author Challenge. This book is really part of the reason I look at the challenges: I had not encountered Aiken and would not have without BAC. So, thank you to the curators of these challenges.

This was an adventure series featuring two girls who encounter what I could only think of as a series of unfortunate events (all due respect to Lemony Snickett). Adults are not what they seem and they are forced to rely on their own talents and resources to save themselves and their families. ( )

Delightfully spooky and mysterious. Full of orphans, evil schoolmistresses and geese. While many of the themes are unoriginal, the writing is delightful and the characters sweet, brave, and endearing. It wraps up a bit too neatly, which maybe should be expected for a tween novel. ( )

Wicked wolves and a grim governess threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie's parents leave Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage. Left in the care of the cruel Miss Slighcarp, the girls can hardly believe what is happening to their once happy home. The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school. It seems as if the endless hours of drudgery will never cease.

With the help of Simon the gooseboy and his flock, they escape. But how will they ever get Willoughby Chase free from the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp?

I approached this book with a little apprehension as I have had past experience of re-reading old childhood favourites and feeling letdown, but there was no problem with this novel, set in an alternative 1832 where the monarch is James III (implying that the House of Hanover never came to the throne) and wolves have entered England during a bad winter by crossing the Channel Tunnel (not opened in our reality until 1994).

Unlike the children's books of today - this was first published in the early 1960s - the whole thing proceeds at a riproaring pace with very little build-up. We plunge straight into the situation: the wealthy parents of Bonnie are about to embark on a trip abroad for the mother's health, and a governess, Miss Slighcarp, who is also a distant relation, has been hired to run the estate and teach Bonnie and her cousin, Sylvia. Meanwhile, Sylvia, raised by the impoverished sister of Bonnie's father, who is too proud to admit her situation, is put aboard a train to travel to the country estate. A seemingly jovial man travels in the same compartment and makes himself useful when the train is attacked by wolves, but soon after arrival, both he and the governess show their true colours and the adventure is underway, incorporating boys who live in the woods, geese, a Dickensian orphange and a shipwreck, among other elements.

The story is told in bold strokes with melodrama, larger than life villains, faithful retainers who are indispensible to the children's safety, and parents or guardians who are conveniently got out of the way by various mechanisms. The only slight detraction is that the wolves of the title fade away by the time the weather warms, and the book does not feature Dido Twite, who I recall as being the streetwise heroine of Aiken's alternative 19th century tales, but who is not introduced until Black Hearts in Battersea. But otherwise an engaging and speedy read which earns 4 stars from me. ( )

A good, tidy story. Less wolfish than I remember, I'm sorry to say. More like a 3 1/2, but only because I am no longer a child who is completely entranced by orphans, cruel mistresses, parent-less adventures, shipwrecks, and disguises. What a minute, I am still entranced by these things! ( )