Wolves Chronicles 07 – Dido and Pa

Joan Aiken's Dido and Pa is a foggy London adventure for 9 year olds about a girl whose dreadful, brilliant father turns up again.

What happens

Dido Twite has been away at sea for so long that everyone thought she'd drowned. So when Simon, her dear old friend, finds her on a hillside at dusk, they hug so hard they nearly land in the blackberry bushes.

It should be the happiest night ever. Simon buys her a warm sheepskin jacket and a huge plate of roast beef at a country inn. Then Dido hears a tune drifting across the green. It's one of her Pa's tunes. And there he is, in a ginger wig and a kilt that doesn't fit, playing it.

Mr Twite is a liar and a plotter and a terrible father. He's also a beautiful musician, and that's the bit Dido can't quite let go of. She used to lie in bed listening to him play and pretend it was for her.

Within minutes he's spun her a tale about her sister being at death's door, and bundled her into a carriage. (Simon never gets the message, of course.)

Meanwhile, across London, a cold, fussy margrave eats exactly thirteen oysters for lunch and crosses names off a list. When a boat sinks outside his window, he asks the musicians to play louder. Brr!

This is the seventh Wolves Chronicles book, and it's a strange, clever England. There's a King Richard on the throne, wolves in the woods and plotters called Hanoverians round every corner. Nobody stops to explain it all. You just get dropped in, and it works.

The real star is Dido's voice. She says things like "Croopus!" and "Mussy me!" and her grammar is all over the place. Read aloud, it's an absolute joy. For a newer reader it might take a few pages to tune in to, so it's a lovely one to share.

It's darker than the cosy opening suggests. The villains get rid of people without a flicker, Pa is clearly after something, and he's rarely without a mug of what he calls organ grinder's oil. A child who likes their baddies properly bad will lap it up. A more sensitive reader might want you close by for the scary parts.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to Black Hearts in Battersea, where Simon first knocks on the Twites' door and a small, jam-sticky girl demands a ride on his donkey.