Product Description

Dido Twite in American New Cumbria on her wildest adventure yet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30071 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 239 pages

From the Back Cover
Dido Twite, heroine of Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket is on her wildest adventure yet. On her way back to London aboard the Thrush, Dido and the crew are summoned to the aid of the tyrannical queen of New Cumbria. Her island is an infernal place where birds carry off men and fish eat human flesh. The queen is greatly distressed because a neighbouring king has stolen her lake. Dido faces fire, flood, wild beasts and, ultimately, threat of execution to get the lake back. Is she equal to the challenge?

A rich mixture of legend, fantasy, humour and pure snowballing adventure.

'Joan Aiken is a natural storyteller with the gift of endless and usually comic invention'. John Rowe Townsend, Guardian.

'The Stolen Lake is zanier and more devilishly fiendish than ever'. New York Times.

About the Author
Joan Aiken:
Prize-winning Joan Aiken was born in Sussex in 1924 and came from a family of writers. Her father was the novelist and poet, Conrad Aiken and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge, writes historical fiction for adults. Before joining the 'family business' herself, Joan had a variety of jobs, including working for the BBC, the United Nations Information Centre and then as features editor for a short story magazine. Her first children's novel, The Kingdom of the Cave was published in 1960. Since then she has written over 100 books for young readers and adults and has been awarded the MBE for her services to literature. Joan Aiken died in 2004. Bee Willey studied for her BA Honours in Visual Communication in Illustration at the Bath Academy of Art. She has worked as a freelance illustrator since 1985. She lives in London with her husband, son and cat.

Customer Reviews

If you like Harry Potter, you'll love Dido Twite
Dido Twite, the quick-witted (and sharp-tongued) heroine of Black Hearts in Battersea and Nightbirds on Nantucket, is back in this sequel. During the mythical reign of Britain's King George IV, the ship carrying 12-year-old Dido from New England back to (old) England is ordered to stop off in New Cumbria, a mysterious South American nation ruled by a suspiciously ancient queen. Is she, as she claims, the widow of King Arthur? If so, how has she managed to survive the centuries? And why aren't there any girls Dido's age in the entire country? For that matter, why did the midshipman of Dido's vessel take ill as soon as they arrived in port? With the same entertaining blend of Cockney common sense and sheer gutsiness that saw her through her earlier adventures, Dido manages to get to the bottom of things--saving an imprisoned princess and, yes, restoring a "stolen" lake in the bargain. All in all, a fun, fast, rollicking read for youngsters and adults alike.

Dido at her best
I inherited this book when I was younger, never read past the first page and it remained on a dusty bookself for years. One night I picked it up again after running out of books to read and forced myself to read further.

I may not have been interested before as this is part of a sequence (Wolves of Willoughby Chase being the first book) but once I began to read more about the heroine, Dido Twite, I was enthralled. This book features such a myriad of ideas that run through all of the WoWC stories. Once I'd read this book I then bought the complete set of books. A treat.

Great fun and truly imaginative
As a new mum with limited time and concentration, I have been rereading all my childhood favourites. I'm a great fan of Joan Aiken and of all the Dido Twite adventures, this is the one I most enjoyed.
Dido is a great heroine - despite the most villainous, neglectful parents, she's resourceful, loyal and happily unconcerned with her looks. In the Stolen Lake she has to deal with the usual collection of crooks, conspirators and a brilliantly grotesque Queen who has been waiting for her husband to return from the dead for centuries and has been keeping herself alive in rather an unpleasant manner...
I'd recommend any Joan Aiken book, they're all fun and pacey and the baddies tend to get their come-uppance in the most imaginative ways.