The Winter Sleepwalker and Other Stories

by Joan Aiken

The Winter And Other Stories

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Childrens, Collections, Fiction, Fairy Tales

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Joan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories.

She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).

Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.

Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.

Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.

Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A magical collection of short stories from the imagination of Joan Aiken who has long being a favourite author of mine. I own most of her books and could t resist getting this to add to my collection.

Surreal and often hilarious fairytale styled stories with bizarre and unexpected outcomes. My favourite character was probably Mrs Hatecraft the witch who was an irritable and thorough miseryguts and lived in the middle of a Wood next to a bottomless dark pool which she populated with small boys who she turned into geese.

[Gülay Akbal · Rating 4 out of 5]

yetişkinler için masal arayanlara tavsiye edilir. yalnız bizim dede korkut yada bizim masallar ile karsilastirmayin🤗

[Burçak Sultan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yine güzel güzel masallar vardı:)

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a hummingbird of fairy tales, here is your red sugar water. I suppose these tales were written for children, but they can charm adults too. I enjoyed every last one of the eight tales in this little collection. Joan Aitken was incredibly prolific and I find myself constantly adding more books by her to my library. Because she's never less than a great time. And they're usually very fast reads. Funny, acerbic and wildly-inventive are words that come to mind when I think of Aiken. You start to understand why Edward Gorey designed so many of her book covers. They might have been siblings separated at birth. They both had Gothic sensibilities invaded by a wild, 20th century humor. Now feel free to imagine the tale each of them would write about HOW they were separated at birth. It seems a suitable subject for both authors to tackle. They loved tales of childhood gone awry and the child hero appeared in the works of both consistently. I look forward to my next Aiken, whichever of the hundred or so titles it might be.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imaginative stories that tend to have some sort of a twist or something unexpected. Female characters are active and speak. There's a lazy falling into hetrosexual "happily ever after" trope, any young person in the book pretty much has to get married but there's a little bit of subversion even around the edges of that (too mild I thought).

There's breaking down of other tropes- eg the "vain" girl is actually a nice girl but has some emotional boundaries, one of the marriages in the book turns out to be a bad idea and the woman needs a career instead...etc. The stories have silly anachronistic touches but that is all part of the fun and fits beautifully with Quentin Blake's illustrations.

I think even though this book is more than 20 years old, kids now could still enjoy it, it's written in a simple, accessible way. I would have LOVED it when I was 8-10

[Willen P · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to unlock a childhood memory and also properly finish reading this, and finally have done so.

The stories are very short and easy to read; although they are written in the style of "classic" mythology, they do have modern elements in it, so it gets with the times. For me, I didn't really like how the stories ended, it could have been fleshed out more with more to go on (the only story that "continued" was the one about the King of Sea's kids).

The tale I remembered the most was Melusina when I first read it; it is probably my favourite out of the lot here. Overall, I thought I would enjoy the whole book a lot more than I actually did, but it's probably because I'm 18 years older now that I don't appreciate it now?

[moi, k.y.a. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Masal kitabı imiş ama çocuk kitabı olduğundan emin değilim. Çocuk psikolojisine dair zırnık fikrim olmasa da erkek kardeşime önereceğim kitaplardan olmayacak.
•
Sıkıntıdan, yorgunluktan ya da masal kitabı okuyor oluşumdan tam kestiremiyorum, esnemekten ağzım yırtılacak sanki. 😂
Bir de masalların hiçbirinde sonları beğenmedim.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just wow! This is a really stunningly beautiful book that easily captures and holds the readers attention. Inside are 7 delightful short stories that are extremely imaginative and fabulously written! I loved each of them but my favourite would have to be Catch a Falling World because of it's funny little outcome! All of the stories are so different from each other, I loved the quirkiness but best of all I loved the illustrations! Quentin Blake's illustrations are easily recognisable because of his unique style, they are simply beautiful and tell a story all on their own! I'm not really sure what age range this book is aimed at but I would easily recommend it to adults and children alike. I read some of them to my 4 year old and she loved them! I definitely think this is a timeless book from a master story teller that will be read by people for many, many years to come! It's certainly one that I will treasure - a real keeper!

*Special thanks to Random House Children's Books for the review copy*

5/5 Stars

Carly :)
http://fictionfascination.blogspot.co...

[Selcoline · Rating 3 out of 5]

masallarda degisik bir tat vardi hem bugunden hem dunden biseyler, hem buyulu hem siradan seyler cok guzel harmanlanmis

[Wyktor Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really neat little book of fantasy stories.
Great illustrations too.
Highly recommended.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, just wow! This is a really stunningly beautiful book that easily captures and holds the readers attention. Inside are 7 delightful short stories that are extremely imaginative and fabulously written! I loved each of them but my favourite would have to be Catch a Falling World because of it's funny little outcome! All of the stories are so different from each other, I loved the quirkiness but best of all I loved the illustrations! Quentin Blake's illustrations are easily recognisable because of his unique style, they are simply beautiful and tell a story all on their own! I'm not really sure what age range this book is aimed at but I would easily recommend it to adults and children alike. I read some of them to my 4 year old and she loved them! I definitely think this is a timeless book from a master story teller that will be read by people for many, many years to come! It's certainly one that I will treasure - a real keeper!

http://fictionfascination.blogspot.co...

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

a note at the beginning says 'the stories in this book were inspired by a series of paintings by Jan Pienkowski' and they have the surreal, slightly disconnected feel of images rather than grounded, rounded stories. (not that this is a bad thing. it's just a thing, as someone said to me the other day.) the oddest one by far is 'Furious Hill' - i had to look up the origin story to work out what was going on, and at least i knew who the main character was. goodness knows what my niece, for whom this is destined, will make of it. (or she may be more up on scandinavian mythology than i was - who knows.) but they all have that distinctive Aiken stamp that's so easy to identify and so hard to replicate and i'm extremely happy that these collections have been reissued.

[Rissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

These stories were definitely not as good as some of her other stories that I've read in the past, but many of them were very sweet and sad nonetheless. And of course they had the same fairy tale quality I've come to love in her short stories.

Update: I initially read this book (borrowed from the library) when my daughter was a newborn. She's now 6 years old and she's come to love Joan Aiken's short stories just as much as I do, so I bought her a copy. I love each story in this book so much, I can't believe I only gave it three stars once!

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the unexpectedness of the story lines. And Quentin Blake's illustrations done with coloured ink outline and watercolour wash.

They are quite a wacky mix of contemporary language and traditional fairytale elements. You really don't know what to expect on the next page and any story could have a sad or happy ending in store... or just a crazy one.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite my protestations about Joan Aiken, here I am again reading another one of her works. Anyway this is an uneven collection of short stories, not terrible, but again not overtly memorable. I know I'll be back Joan will you make it worth it for me!!

[Zackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun array of Aiken's stories meant for a younger audience. Most of these are whimsical and silly. The one odd one is "Furious Hill", which is more eerie and feels like it leaves a lot up to the reader.

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, whimsical collection of stories from Joan Aiken, who is an amazing storyteller.

[lethe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sommige verhalen zijn geestig, maar alle maken ze een schetsmatige, onaffe indruk.

[Ümit Mutlu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Aiken'ın masalları, bu kez daha az masal, daha çok öykü. Ve kesinlikle daha komik ve nüktedan.