Jane Austen Sequels: The Novels of Joan Aiken
Joan Delano Aiken was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and children’s author born in Rye, East Sussex in September 1924 whose works spanned the genres of historical fiction, fantasy, horror, and suspense. Her writing style has been characterized as dream-like, quirky, alternative, and even strange. Of the ninety-two novels penned by Joan Aiken, sixty-five of those were written for children and young adult audiences. Her father, Conrad Aiken, was an American Pulitzer Prize winning poet famous not only for his writing but for being complex and eccentric. Joan co-authored the memoir Conrad Aiken Remembered with her siblings, John and Joan, published in 1989. Her Canadian mother, Jessie McDonald, a highly educated woman, romanced and married a second famous writer, Martin Armstrong, after she separated from Conrad Aiken.
Joan received her secondary education at the Wychwood School in Oxford. She completed her first novel manuscript by the age of sixteen. Despite never attending university or receiving any college level education (in fact, she was denied admission to Oxford University), she had her first book of short stories, titled All You’ve Ever Wanted, published at the age of eighteen and began reading stories for the British Broadcasting Corporation as early in 1944 at the age of twenty.
Joan married twice; first, to journalist Ronald George Brown from 1945 until his death in 1955. Together, they had two children: John S. Brown and Elizabeth D. Charlaff. After his death, she worked for the British Argosy magazine and as a copywriter for advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. In 1961, she was able to save enough money to devote her time exclusively fiction writing. She married artist and former Hunter College professor, Julius Goldstein, in 1976. He passed away in 2002.
Her literary work earned many prestigious honors, including the Guardian Award in 1969, an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1972 from the Mystery Writers of America for Night Fall, published in 1970. In 1999 Queen Elizabeth II made her a member of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to children’s literature.
Although known for being a very private woman, Joan always welcomed and enjoyed the company of children who never left empty handed; Joan gave a copy of one of her books to each child who visited.
Joan Aiken passed away at the age of 79 at her home in Petworth in Southern England on January 10, 2004.
Following is a list of novels by Joan Aiken, which does not include her works of poetry, short story collections, and non-fiction works too numerous to name:
Wolves of Willoughby Chase series:
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962)
Black Hearts in Battersea (1964)
Nightbirds on Nantucket (1966)
The Whispering Mountain (1968)
The Cuckoo Tree (1971)
Midnight Is a Place (1974)
The Stolen Lake (1981)
Dido and Pa (1986)
Is (1992)
Cold Shoulder Road (1995)
Dangerous Games (1999) aka Limbo Lodge in the UK
Midwinter Nightingale (2003)
The Witch of Clatteringshaws (2005)
Is / Cold Shoulder Road (omnibus) (2004)
Armitage Family:
Armitage, Armitage Fly Away Home (1968)
The Serial Garden: The Complete Armitage Family Stories (2008)
Arabel and Mortimer series:
Arabel’s Raven (1972)
Escaped Black Mamba (1973)
The Bread Bin (1974)
Mortimer’s Tie (1976)
Arabel and Mortimer (1980)
Mortimer’s Cross (1983)
Arabel and the Escaped Black Mamba (1984)
A Call at the Joneses (1985)
Mortimer Says Nothing (1985)
The Mystery of Mr Jones’s Disappearing Taxi (1988)
Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur (1990)
Mortimer’s Portrait on Glass (1990)
Mortimer and Arabel (1992) (with Lizza Aiken)
The Spiral Stair (1992)
The Adventures of Arabel and Mortimer (omnibus) (1993)
Mortimer’s Mine (1994)
Mayhem in Rumbury (omnibus) (1995)
Mortimer’s Bread Bin (2001)
Felix Trilogy:
Go Saddle the Sea (1978)
Bridle the Wind (1983)
The Teeth of the Gale (1988)
Jane Austen Sequels novels:
Mansfield Park Revisited (1984)
Jane Fairfax:The Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen’s Emma (1990)
Eliza’s Daughter (1994)
Emma Watson: The Watsons Completed (1996)
The Youngest Miss Ward (1998)
Lady Catherine’s Necklace (2000)
Others (chronological):
More Than You Bargained for (1955)
The Kingdom and the Cave (1960)
The Silence of Herondale (1964)
The Fortune Hunters (1965)
The Cockatrice Boys (1966)
Trouble with Product X (1966) aka Beware of the Bouquet
Dark Interval (1967)
The Ribs of Death (1967)
Hate Begins at Home (1967)
The Crystal Crow (1968)
Night Fall (1969)
The Embroidered Sunset (1970)
Died on a Rainy Sunday (1972)
A Cluster of Separate Sparks (1972) aka The Butterfly Picnic
Voices in an Empty House (1975)
Castle Barebane (1976)
Last Movement (1976)
The Five-Minute Marriage (1977)
Mice and Mendelson (1978)
The Smile of the Stranger (1978)
Come Flee with Me (1978)
The Shadow Guests (1980)
The Weeping Ash (1980)
The Lightning Tree (1980)
The Young Lady from Paris (1982) aka Girl from Paris
Foul Matter (1983)
The Kitchen Warriors (1983)
Mansfield Revisited (1984)
If I Were You (1987)
Deception (1987)
The Erl King’s Daughter (1988)
Voices (1988)
Blackground (1989)
Jane Fairfax (1990)
Return to Harken House (1990)
The Shoemaker’s Boy (1991)
Morningquest (1992)
The Midnight Moropus (1993)
Eliza’s Daughter (1994)
A Handful of Gold (1995)
Emma Watson (1996)
The Youngest Miss Ward (1998)
Lady Catherine’s Necklace (2000)
Song of Mat and Ben (2001)
Bone and Dream (2002)
Joan Aiken is the author of five Jane Austen sequels, continuations and adaptations. Her Jane Austen related works include: The Watsons and Emma Watson: Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novel Completed by Joan Aiken, Jane Fairfax: The Secret Story of the Second Heroine in Jane Austen’s Emma, Eliza’s Daughter: A Sequel to Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park Revisited: A Jane Austen Entertainment, Lady Catherine’s Necklace: A Jane Austen Entertainment, in addition to her numerous other published novels. You can learn more about her impressive literary accomplishments on her website joanaiken.com.
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