The Wolves of Willoughby Chase [Paperback]

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?

This edition of the beloved classic features an introduction by Aiken's daughter, Lizza, providing insight into the struggles Aiken—much like her heroines—had to endure before finally finishing this classic story a decade after she started writing it.

"A masterpiece...a copybook lesson in those virtues that a classic children's book must possess."--Time.JOAN AIKEN was born in Sussex in 1924. She wrote over a hundred books for young readers and adults and is recognized as one of the classic authors of the 20 century. Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which the Lewis Carroll prize-winningThe Wolves of Willoughby Chasewas the first title. Throughout her lifetime she received the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the United States, theGuardianAward for Fiction forThe Whispering Mountain, and was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1999 for her services to children's books. She died in 2004.It was dusk--winter dusk. Snow lay white and shining over the pleated hills, and icicles hung from the forest trees. Snow lay piled on the dark road across Willoughby Wold, but from dawn men had been clearing it with brooms and shovels. There were hundreds of them at work, wrapped in sacking because of the bitter cold, and keeping together in groups for fear of the wolves, grown savaglƒ%