Wolves Chronicles 05 – Limbo Lodge

Joan Aiken's Limbo Lodge is a swashbuckling island adventure for 9 year olds, starring a London girl with a LOT to say for herself.

What happens

Dido Twite is a very long way from home. She's been chasing a lord across the oceans of the world. King James is lying ill in London, and Lord Herodsfoot has been sent round the globe hunting for games that might cheer him up. Every time Dido's ship arrives somewhere, he's just left.

Now the trail leads to Aratu, a spice island that ships can barely reach. It's home to sting-monkeys and to pearl snakes, whose bite can kill. And the old ship taking her there has cockroaches that will eat your toes in the night if you don't rub them with oil first (lovely).

Dido has company, at least to begin with. There's cheerful young Mr Multiple from the navy, and a doctor called Talisman who was born on Aratu. When he was five he fell off a cliff and landed on the deck of a passing ship, and he's never been back.

Then a sailor drops something heavy on Mr Multiple's head. By the time they dock, Dido's friend is out cold and the doctor fears for his life.

And something isn't quite right. The doctor's old friend is waiting on the quay, and he doesn't seem at all surprised to see him. Dido and Mr Multiple had already started to wonder about the doctor.

The real joy is Dido herself. She talks in a London all of her own. "Croopus!" "Don't I jist hope he is." "Oh, scrape it." Reading her aloud is half the fun (go on, have a go at the accent).

This is history bent sideways. There's a King James III on the throne, a China Tea War raging and islands that aren't on any map. It's crammed with odd, specific detail, from blue-tiled houses to a volcano under the sea that sends a great wall of water racing past the island.

There's some grim humour along the way. The captain's last cook died from drinking five gallons of grog, and the doctor's adoptive father was found stabbed before the story begins. It's all mentioned briskly, but a very sensitive reader might notice.

What to read next

If your reader falls for Dido, Black Hearts in Battersea will take them to the Twite family's house in London. A boy called Simon arrives looking for a friend who seems to have vanished, and he's greeted by a very rude, jam-sticky little Miss Twite.