(And quite how I missed out on this series as a kid, I'm not remotely sure.) It's also got some fun and colorful dialog, which may or may not be historically accurate, but is rather charming, anyway. The second thing you should know is that some characters in Wolves are also in Black Hearts. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. But though she wrote extensively for both - and won prizes for both - she began by writing. Black Hearts in Battersea (Wolves Chronicles Book 2) - Kindle edition by Aiken, Joan. It's entertaining enough, anyway, and I'm sure I would have found it fairly exciting if I'd read it as a child. Aiken wants you to know about Black Hearts in Battersea is that it takes place in the same time period as The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, near the beginning of the nineteenth century. Joan Aiken, who has died at the age of 79, was an outstanding storyteller for children and adults alike.

All of which admittedly feels quite contrived, and the main mysteries are wrapped up a bit abruptly, but I guess that's hardly unusual for this sort of thing. There's a mysterious disappearance, an insurrectionist plot, some adventures at sea, and the revelation of several true identities. Her sister was Jane Aiken Hodge, a writer, and her brother was a writer and research chemist, named John Aiken. Her dad was Conrad Aiken, an American Pulitzer Prize winning poet. I still don't quite see why it's rated as such a classic - I think maybe you just have to read it at the right age to fully appreciate it and imprint on it - but it is an entirely decent kids' story. Joan Aiken was born in Mermaid Street on Septemin Rye, Sussex.

I was told, though, that this one was better, and I do think that's true. Book two in the alternate history kids' series that started with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.Īfter hearing more than one person praise these books as bone fide children's classics, I was quite underwhelmed by the first volume, which I found readable but pretty unmemorable.

Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken