The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

By: Joan Aiken

Narrated by: Lizza Aiken

Wicked wolves and a grim governess threaten Bonnie and her cousin Sylvia when Bonnie's parents leave Willoughby Chase for a sea voyage. Left in the care of the cruel Miss Slighcarp, the girls can hardly believe what is happening to their once happy home. The servants are dismissed, the furniture is sold, and Bonnie and Sylvia are sent to a prison-like orphan school. It seems as if the endless hours of drudgery will never cease.

With the help of Simon the gooseboy and his flock, they escape. But how will they ever get Willoughby Chase free from the clutches of the evil Miss Slighcarp?

Critic reviews

"This year can boast one genuine small masterpiece. . . . The Wolves of Willoughby Chase . . . is almost a copybook lesson in those virtues that a classic children's book must possess: charm, a style of its own, the skill and authority to create a small world without writing down to small readers."
--Time Magazine

"It's a funny book. The language is so fantastically right."--School Library Journal

Wonderful Adventure with two heroines

The wolves of Willoughby Chase is such an amazing book it allows the reader to delve in to an imaginary age of wolf hunts and shipwrecks. But also really lighthearted at times when the two together make everything better.

The wolves of Willoughby chase review

It was a thoroughly splendid, enjoyable, marvelously classical book! I would recommend it to anyone who wants to ditch comics and modern books and find enjoyment in the classical works of Joan Aiken, Louisa May Alcott, and L.M. Montgomery. Suitable for all ages above 9 and all sexes!

Well read and thoroughly engaging!

Wolves of Willoughby Chase is a story that was read to me as a child and I have read to my children. It was especially meaningful to have the author’s daughter read the book and she read it just as I heard it in my head when I read it to myself. A childhood classic adults will love as well!

Loved this book when I read it in grade school

I still love it as an adult. I plan on reading her other books in addition😊

A Perfect Story

If you could sum up The Wolves of Willoughby Chase in three words, what would they be?

Wonderful, Exciting, Satisfying

Which scene was your favorite?

All of it

Any additional comments?

This book is every bit as good as I remember it being when I read it as a child, and an equally compelling, sweet read for an adult. A good book for parents and children to listen to together, it is by turns thrilling, frightening, and ultimately quite happy.