Wolves of Willoughby Chase

[jack]

Hey, when you first saw "Wolves of Willoughby Chase", did you realise it was alternate history? I didn't really think about it then, and then never thought about it again until I looked up the book now.

I guess I was fairly young, used to children's books that play with reality fairly freely, and wouldn't actually have noticed if any country was explicitly mentioned in the dialogue or known if there were any places that populated with that many wolves and those fashions.

I also noticed:

Bonnie looks and acts incredibly like Ron Weasly in the films.

If you google for something and are filtering for any likely hits, do not follow anything to myspace. "Pictures of naked elves" don't kill eyes, "pictures of naked elves on black background as non-scrolling background to a page with dark text, too-wide-fixed-width, content and status information put into random boxes, many unconnected pictures, video, ungrammatical text, banner ads, ascii art in a proportional font[1], and automatic music" kill eyes. OTOH, before I sound too negative, some of the image manipulations were nice, the conversation was as nice and as coherent as most people I know[2], and:

It did link me to another stick-figure webcomic, Cyanide and Happiness, which is a little basic, but seems to have a spark. A man and a woman are sitting on a bench. W:Sometimes I just feel like you never notice me. / W:Charles... I think we should break up. / M:WHAT THE HELL? / M:...Benches aren't supposed to talk?!

Also, I hadn't seen before on Amazon.com entries, Statistically Improbable Phrases are the most distinctive phrases in the text of books. Cool.

[1] That shouldn't be. Though come to think of it, ascii art designed for a (specific) proportional font could be kind of cool.

Comments

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

I always knew, I think. I read The Whispering Mountain and then Nightbirds on Nantucket and Black Hearts in Battersea those three have far more of the politics in them. The Royal family doesn't play much of a part in Wolves of Willoughby Chase whereas the other three have a lot about it. I can't quite remember how old I was when I read The Whispering Mountain. It was a falling apart copy from the school library and I'm partially associating it with the portacabin which we were in second year juniors (yr 4 these days) so possible 8/9.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense! I didn't know there were sequels. I think the book has a preface, for that matter; I only saw the film, which (maybe) leaves it more open. I'm sure I read something by Joan Aiken, and it was a bit odd but pretty good, but I can't remember what.

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

There are lots of sequels. From memory:
Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Black Hearts in Battersea
Night Birds in Nantucket
Stolen Lake
Whispering Mountain
Cuckoo Tree
Dido and Pa
Is
and I think there's been at least one more since I grew up! Black Hearts follows Simon becoming an artist (and finding his family) in London and introduces us to Dido, who ends up going to Nantucket (Night Birds), foiling a plot to fire a massive gun at London to kill the king which would also have pushed Nantucket back against the mainland, and coming back via Hy-Brasil (Stolen Lake). Whispering Mountain is set in Wales and introduces a new character (Owen?) who saves the Prince of Wales. Then the Cuckoo Tree features Simon, Dido and Owen foiling a plot to ruin the coronation by putting St Paul's on Wheels. Dido and Pa is about Dido and her father (who is involved in Hanoverian plots) and Is follows her younger sister Is who ends up in mines in the North East.

Other books by Joan Aitken include Midnight is a Place which is about a factory run by evil men and one set in the present day but with overlap into the past (for example Roman gladiators) in a mill. I think Flatland is mentioned in it. I can't for the life of me remember the title though. And it'll be in a box in the attic. MMmm, I don't remember seeing Joan Aitken in my rummage for other things. She has also written The Lightening Tree for adults.