The girls soon learn that the blissful existence they anticipate together is not to last. Although the adventure ends on a scary note-the girls are chased by the ever-present wolves-all is well thanks to Simon, a resourceful boy who lives on his own in a cave, raising geese and bees. The robust and adventurous Bonnie is eager to show Sylvia the delights of country life, and they embark on an ice-skating expedition almost immediately. Sylvia is nervous about the long train ride into the snowy countryside, especially when wolves menace the stopped train, but once she arrives, the cousins become instant friends. Also, due to arrive is Bonnie's orphan cousin Sylvia, who lived in London with Sir Willoughby's impoverished but genteel older sister Jane, coming to keep her cousin company in her parents' absence. The story is set at Willoughby Chase, the grand home of Sir Willoughby and Lady Green and their daughter Bonnie.ĭue to Lady Green's ill health, Bonnie's parents are taking a holiday in warmer climates touring the Mediterranean by ship, leaving her in the care of a newly arrived distant fourth cousin, Letitia Slighcarp. It was adapted into a film, with the same title, in 1989. It is described by John Rowe Townsend as 'a tale of double-dyed villainy, with right triumphant in the end'. Aiken wrote the book over a period of years, with a seven-year gap due to her full-time work the success of this, her second novel, enabled her to quit her job and write full-time. A large number of wolves have migrated from the bitter cold of Europe and Russia into Britain via a new 'channel tunnel', and terrorise the inhabitants of rural areas.

The novel is the first in the Wolves Chronicles, a series of books set during the fictional early 19th-century reign of King James the Third.

Set in an alternative history of England, it tells of the adventures of cousins Bonnie and Sylvia and their friend Simon the goose-boy as they thwart the evil schemes of their governess Miss Slighcarp, and their so-called 'teacher' at boarding school, Mrs. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase is a children's novel by Joan Aiken, first published in 1962.

The wolves of willoughby chase author