Late one night, Arabel's father finds a large black bird - a raven. He takes it home, Arabel christens it 'Mortimer' and life is never the same. Mortimer has a beak for trouble, an insatiable appetite for all sorts of strange things and a one-word vocabulary - 'Nevermore". He dislikes flying but will grudgingly take to the air in emergencies, and there are plenty of those in the seven short stories included in book.
Joan Aiken was a prolific and well-regarded children's author for over 30 years and was awarded an OBE for services to children's literature. The delightfully humorous Arabel and Mortimer stories were very popular when they were first published and a BBC puppet comedy-drama for children, based on the books was on TV in the 1980's. The re-publishing of these book, superbly illustrated by Quentin Blake, will ensure a new generation of children can enjoy the madcap adventures. This is a book the whole family can enjoy as a read-aloud or could be read by on their own by children aged 8 and up. ( )