Life at The Little Theatre, Southport Woman who made Wolves
ANEW month is upon us and we are marching towards another opening night. Wolves of Willoughby Chase opens this Tuesday, March 8 and plays every night at 7.30pm until Saturday, March 12.
This intriguing and atmospheric drama is based on the stories by Joan Aiken. Aiken was born in Sussex in 1924. Her father was American Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Conrad Aiken and her mother Canadian academic Jessie MacDonald. Her older siblings were writers as was her mother’s second husband.
She had completed her first novel by 16, then at 17 had a short story accepted for publication and her first children’s story was broadcast on BBC’s Children’s Hour.
At 21 she married journalist Ronald George Brown and they had two children before she was widowed a decade later. After her husband’s death, Aiken began working for a magazine, honing her craft and publishing several short stories.
Wolves of Willoughby Chase was published in 1962, and by now she was enjoying enough success to dedicate herself full time to writing and produced several works, sometimes published under the pen name Nicholas Dee.
This series of books is known as the Wolves Chronicles, or the James III series in reference to the reimagined historical setting. Aiken created a world where the monarch was never deposed and wolves had invaded via a channel tunnel to Europe. This tunnel was a sci-fi concept at the time, and the notion of it creating invasion fears very poignant.
Aiken also worked with the popular illustrator Quentin Blake on a series of books. Her style meant that her novels could be standalone or serial. This skill led to successful adult novels complementing existing works such as Jane Fairfax, about the character in Jane Austen’s Emma.
New York landscape painter Julius Goldstein became her second husband in 1976 and they divided time between their homes. She was awarded the MBE for services to children’s literature in 1999. Julius passed in 2001 then Joan in 2004. She was survived by her two children as well as her body of work.
Book tickets by going online or call 01704 530521 from 11am to 1pm, or two hours before curtain up on show nights.