Joan Aiken

Their marriage dissolved in 1929, and Jessie remarried to Martin Armstrong, an English writer in the year 1930, while Conrad married twice more. Joan, along with John and Jane, wrote Conrad Aiken Remembered, a short appreciation of their dad. Joan was taught at home by her mom until she was twelve from 1936 until 1940 at Wychwood School for girls in North Oxford.

The best place to start is The Wolves Chronicles series, the earliest of Joan Aiken's multi-book series: it opens with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) and runs to 12 books across 1962–2005, ending with The Witch of Clatteringshaws (2005). Joan Aiken's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

Joan Aiken has 276 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1863 and 2026. 163 of them belong to 14 named series — the largest being the Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet series with 38 books — and 113 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Joan Aiken's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are The Wolves Chronicles (1962–2005, 12 books), Ribs of Death (1967–1983, 2 books) and Armitage Family (1968–2008, 2 books), plus 9 more.

This guide splits Joan Aiken's 276 books into 14 named series and 113 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet (38 books, 2003–2026); Bloomsbury Readers (27 books, 2004–2021); Arabel and Mortimer (17 books, 1972–2019); Hippo Hauntings (13 books, 1988–2017); The Wolves Chronicles (12 books, 1962–2005), plus 9 further series.