Dispatches from the 60s #2
Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Dear Doctor,
Will you please come see us, as we don’t think Papa would like the things that are happening here and we can’t write to him for he is on board Ship. Miss Slycarp, our wicked Governess, has dismissed all the good old Servants and is making herself into a Tyrant. She wears Mamma’s dresses and Mr. Grimshaw is in League with her and they drink champagne every Day.
Yours respectfully,
Bonnie Green and Sylvia Green
—The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
Oh, it had been far too long since I’d read this one, and it was such a purely enjoyable read that I’m leaning towards picking up the sequel. If you’re inclined towards olde-fashionedy British tales starring plucky heroines and villains with Dickensian names, it’s a real treat.
When Lord Willoughby heads off on a long trip for his wife’s health, he hires a distant relation, Miss Slighcarp, to act as governess and guardian to their beloved daughter Bonnie and her impoverished cousin Sylvia.
Unfortunately for Bonnie and Sylvia, the moment Bonnie’s parents are gone, Miss Slighcarp goes FULL WICKED:
she tells the girls there will be no lessons, and instead they will be put to work
she fires all of the good servants
she starts wearing Bonnie’s mother’s clothes and selling off all of Bonnie’s belongings
when Bonnie protests, she locks her in a closet and feeds her only bread and water
she finds Lord Willoughby’s will and has a forger rewrite it, leaving her everything????
she informs Bonnie that her parents’ ship has been lost at sea, so she is now an orphan…
…and ditches both girls at an orphanage/workhouse!!!!
That’s basically the first half of the book! It’s bananas and wonderful, where everything just gets worse and worse and worse—and on top of it all, out in the cold and dark winter, the wolves are endlessly circling. And then, in the second half, everything goes the other way. The girls’ fortunes turn around: they escape the orphanage, journey to London, unravel the various mysteries, and eventually celebrate an entirely happy ending as spring begins to transform the landscape.
Bonnie and Sylvia spent the time while they waited for James’s return in artistically dirtying and untidying each other, rubbing dust and coal on their faces, rumpling their hair, and making themselves look as dejected and orphanly as possible.
—The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, by Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken’s writing always feels timeless to me—for the most part, it reads like she could have written it in 1962, when it was actually published, or she could have written it in 1922, or in 2022. Her writing is always so, so evocative—she creates such a clear picture, particularly of all of the characters—and she’s so often slyly, unexpectedly funny:
They had already learned that Diana Brisket someone to dread. Her sharp eyes were everywhere, ready to catch the slightest fault, which she would then shrilly report to her mother, and her bony fingers were clever to prod or pinch or twist as she passed on stairs or landing. She was cordially hated by the whole school.
“She was cordially hated by the whole school” just kills me.
In this world, illness is generally cured with good, simple food, like broth and eggs and milk and butter and honey (and also champagne????). Simon the Goose Boy’s life—he lives, by choice, in a cave and raises geese to sell and lives largely on food that he forages—is portrayed as hearty and wholesome and warm and toasty. (…which, now that I’m thinking about it, is really interesting when compared with Aunt Jane’s genteel poverty, in that she literally just lays herself down to starve to death, rather than be impolite and ask someone for help??)
It’s a book that celebrates independence and kindness and practicality and generosity. Bonnie’s temper always flares when she’s faced with meanness; she always stands up for her loved ones as well as those she sees as being treated poorly, and because of her absurdly idyllic childhood to date, she doesn’t have a great understanding of power dynamics and finds it Very Surprising when adults in power wield it for ill rather than for good. She has to learn about timing her battles, but it’s a lesson that never gets talked about at ALL—we just see her learning as she goes, adjusting her behavior as she figures it out. I love that.
More from the 60s
Gosh, yes, timeless -- these books have NEVER felt like they were from the sixties to me, except for the covers. Bonnie and Syl could very much could have been the starchier, sturdier contemporaries of Frances Hodgson Burnett's Secret Garden kids (circa 1910) or Theodosia Throckmorton or, of course, the Baudelaire siblings. I have read and reread this book, and the Wolves as a set are on my Someday I Will Find This In Fancy Hard-Cover list. I should make a point to read everything Joan Aiken has ever written, though I think I've read all the Wolves. I've been a bit scared they wouldn't hold up, but... I want to do it anyway. (I think she published her last book in the early 2000's, I wonder how much her voice and character inclusiveness might have changed. Hm...)
Also, you've gotta love Miss Slighcarp. I mean, talk about having the courage of your convictions. Full On Wicked is a truly bold mindset, and she really does it justice. Wearing Mama's clothing always gives me full-on vapours. I mean, THE NERVE. The steel-plated nerve! She's truly one of my favorite villainesses.