Joan Aiken
English writerWikipedia
9
MENTIONS
5
EPISODES
5
PODCASTS
Search complete. 9 mentions across 5 episodes found for "Joan Aiken".
Sep 2, 2026
Mel BernhardtHOST
referred to as rather milk and honey sort of fare are early memories, but striking violent images from the cloister and the hearth heard before age five are also hers.
Mel BernhardtHOST
It's worth mentioning that Joan Aitken did have siblings, but from this profile, it seems that her older siblings were sent away to boarding school after the remarriage and so she was brought up not in isolation but she had a lot of time on her own now it's at this point as we bring it round to writing and remember this is an overview of joan aiken's life but i'd like to direct you to her website the wonderful world of joan aiken where there is a timeline of her life story.
Mel BernhardtHOST
And she had a very, very busy and active life work-wise.
Mel BernhardtHOST
So although she always wanted to write from a very, very young age and felt she was destined to write, her first book of short stories was published in 1953.
Mel BernhardtHOST
But anyway, I'm going off topic.
Mel BernhardtHOST
Or maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not.
Mel BernhardtHOST
But anyway, let's get back to just finishing off with a bit about the author Joan Aiken.
Mel BernhardtHOST
In addition to the Wolves series, the Armitage series, Arabella Mortimer, she was also an award-winning author and she won awards for The Whispering Mountain, which won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
James LarkGUEST
It was a Saturday afternoon.
James LarkGUEST
It was based on a Joan Aiken book.
James LarkGUEST
And it was a Saturday afternoon kind of classy family drama.
James LarkGUEST
And he played, I think, the King of England.
Rowan EllisGUEST
And the book also, I believe, had been translated from German.
Rowan EllisGUEST
So there was also this element of like, I think within the book, it felt like a very classic old school middle grade style book that we don't really, like we do still have, but I feel like there's been this sort of David Williams-ification of children's books where a lot of these middle grade are like, my granny's farts and you're like okay well it's kind of lost its magic so there's a lot of like dialogue that does seem very unnatural in the book for like both translation reasons and for like the kind of a naturalistic like middle grade of the 2000s that was trying to harp back to probably like the joan aiken style um like wolves of willoughby chase kind of middle grade before that became like a publishing category it was just like the vibe where it wasn't even necessarily like easy dumbed down language for kids it was still quite like antiquated language just a 12 year old like a 10 to 12 year old was going to read it but i was very surprised by how well these actors did i was really ready to be totally cringed out by all of the performances but even the little boy bo's one i was like he's kind of great i really i feel like young kid actors that can be really annoying but he was kind of cute i liked it
DanHOST
yeah i think he definitely did better when they gave him the cough medicine Because the first five, ten minutes, he's just like, oh no.
Rowan EllisGUEST
He was being method.
speaker_31VOICE_ACTOR
[gentle music]
speaker_18VOICE_ACTOR
A story by Joan Aiken, read by Miriam Margolyes.
speaker_18VOICE_ACTOR
She Was Afraid of Upstairs.
speaker_32NARRATOR
My cousin Tessie that was, bright as a button she was, neat as ninepence, and clever too.
EamonHOST
And without giving it away, we do know that some of the Jackanory stories would give us a chance to touch on some of the absolute classics of Jackanory.
EamonHOST
children's literature that we haven't been able to really look at in any other form Brian yes of course if you have favorites from Jack and Ori's back catalogue if you have a particular favorite reader or a particular favorite story then please get in touch with us let us know what your favorites are I well remember Bernard Cribbins reading the Arabelle and her Raven Mortimer stories by Joan Aitken with illustrations by Quentin Blake they hold a particular memory for me Brian
BrianHOST
Oh, fantastic.
BrianHOST
Now let's get into some of our own thoughts about this a little more than we already have.