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Arabel and Mortimer #4
Mortimer's Tie
When the Jones family is invited on a cruise to Spain onboard The Queen of Bethnal Green, they are obliged, of course, to take Mortimer along with them. But even they could not predict that things would go so wrong when Mortimer's favorite green tie is blown overboard and he would end up floating out to sea inside a grand piano.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
63 people want to read
About the author
Joan Aiken
335 books608 followersJoan Aiken was a much loved English writer who received the MBE for services to Children's Literature. She was known as a writer of wild fantasy, Gothic novels and short stories.
She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).
Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.
Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.
Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.
Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.
She was born in Rye, East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father, Conrad Aiken (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry), and her sister, Jane Aiken Hodge. She worked for the United Nations Information Office during the second world war, and then as an editor and freelance on Argosy magazine before she started writing full time, mainly children's books and thrillers. For her books she received the Guardian Award (1969) and the Edgar Allan Poe Award (1972).
Her most popular series, the "Wolves Chronicles" which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, was set in an elaborate alternate period of history in a Britain in which James II was never deposed in the Glorious Revolution,and so supporters of the House of Hanover continually plot to overthrow the Stuart Kings. These books also feature cockney urchin heroine Dido Twite and her adventures and travels all over the world.
Another series of children's books about Arabel and her raven Mortimer are illustrated by Quentin Blake, and have been shown on the BBC as Jackanory and drama series. Others including the much loved Necklace of Raindrops and award winning Kingdom Under the Sea are illustrated by Jan Pieńkowski.
Her many novels for adults include several that continue or complement novels by Jane Austen. These include Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax.
Aiken was a lifelong fan of ghost stories. She set her adult supernatural novel The Haunting of Lamb House at Lamb House in Rye (now a National Trust property). This ghost story recounts in fictional form an alleged haunting experienced by two former residents of the house, Henry James and E. F. Benson, both of whom also wrote ghost stories. Aiken's father, Conrad Aiken, also authored a small number of notable ghost stories.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 23, 2018
Possibly my favourite out of the Mortimer stories so far, Mortimer's Tie sees Arabel and her family invited to a 10-day cruise upon a luxury ocean liner. Mortimer causes all sorts of havoc upon the ship much to the delight of the reader and the consternation of Miss Brown, the incomparably glamorous entertainer on board the ship. Many cheeky chuckles were had and I now begin to see how prolific and skilled Aiken in the breadth of her writing but also in how instrumental Blake and Marriott were in bringing her work to life, visually. It's embarrassing, how poorly Aiken's work and ability has been celebrated. Some of her work may still be published yet a Guardian award and a commendation in the Carnegie remains the total sum of her honours.
June 28, 2016
The fourth of Joan Aiken's Arabel and Mortimer books, Mortimer's Tie is also the first I've ever read, but not being acquainted with what preceded the events here was, I felt, no barrier to following what was happening. And what a lot happens! You don't need to know quite how Arabel (who is "still too young for school") acquires her pet raven Mortimer, you just need to know what results when the corvid is introduced into a human environment. One word: chaos.
The plot involves Mr Jones' taxi being cleaned out, what Lady Dunnage lost in it, a cruise ship with a full compliment of crew and passengers, and an unfortunate episode with a grand piano. Oh, and the green tie that Mortimer has as his snuggy or comfort blanket. Going from Number Six, Rainwater Crescent, Rumbury Town to somewhere off the coast of Spain and back is the arc of the story, a sequence of related events that is rarely aided but always abetted -- usually for the worse -- by Mortimer. Only Arabel has some control over him, though sadly that's not always enough. (But if she did there would be no story!)
The heart of this story is not the mayhem but the characters. Mortimer is a most disarming individual, totally self-centred as wild creatures tend to be but with an innocence that displays none of the more devious aspects of the Trickster Raven in the mythology of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. If, as the author suggested, Mortimer is the Ego that many young readers could easily identify with then Arabel is the complimentary Id trying her darnedest to ameliorate the situation or mitigate the excesses of Mortimer's actions. Arabel's mother, meanwhile, is an anxious latter-day Mrs Malaprop -- she believes at one point that Mortimer has been "magnetised by one of those hypopotanists" and that the cabaret singer Miss Brandy Brown is "a very silly historical girl to fly off the handle" with her claim to have "an algebra about birds, or an agony". And we mustn't forget the good guys such as Mike the friendly steward, or Mr Fairburn the chief engineer with his idiosyncratic Scottish turn of phrase, or Henry Mainbrace the captain's son ...
Joan Aiken of course plays on the folkloric characteristics of many of the crow family -- Mortimer has the corvid ability to mimic ("Nevermore!" is his chief and only phrase) and the tendency to thieve anything that catches his fancy, from a diamond ring to potato crisps -- but her intended audience may often be unaware of this reputation; in fact the raven's association with doom, gloom and death is not even hinted at. To me the type that Mortimer most resembles is a Zanni ("zany") character in the Italian commedia dell'arte who usually -- and maybe not coincidentally -- wears a dark or black mask with a beaky nose, and whose role in to create chaos in a household.
Finally, the cruise ship itself is the perfect theatre for Mortimer's strain of havoc: The Queen of Bethnal Green becomes a closed system where the bird can unwittingly create a train of disorder and confusion. Like a talented composer of miniatures Aiken skillfully reintroduces thematic material throughout the seventy-odd pages, even adding a pastiche popular song or two, all to the accompaniment of a doomed grand piano. Created for the popular children's TV series Jackanory in the seventies, the Arabel and Mortimer stories were programmes that I somehow missed even though the first of our children was growing up at the time. Thank goodness then that there are another dozen stories still available for me to explore.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-tie
The plot involves Mr Jones' taxi being cleaned out, what Lady Dunnage lost in it, a cruise ship with a full compliment of crew and passengers, and an unfortunate episode with a grand piano. Oh, and the green tie that Mortimer has as his snuggy or comfort blanket. Going from Number Six, Rainwater Crescent, Rumbury Town to somewhere off the coast of Spain and back is the arc of the story, a sequence of related events that is rarely aided but always abetted -- usually for the worse -- by Mortimer. Only Arabel has some control over him, though sadly that's not always enough. (But if she did there would be no story!)
The heart of this story is not the mayhem but the characters. Mortimer is a most disarming individual, totally self-centred as wild creatures tend to be but with an innocence that displays none of the more devious aspects of the Trickster Raven in the mythology of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest. If, as the author suggested, Mortimer is the Ego that many young readers could easily identify with then Arabel is the complimentary Id trying her darnedest to ameliorate the situation or mitigate the excesses of Mortimer's actions. Arabel's mother, meanwhile, is an anxious latter-day Mrs Malaprop -- she believes at one point that Mortimer has been "magnetised by one of those hypopotanists" and that the cabaret singer Miss Brandy Brown is "a very silly historical girl to fly off the handle" with her claim to have "an algebra about birds, or an agony". And we mustn't forget the good guys such as Mike the friendly steward, or Mr Fairburn the chief engineer with his idiosyncratic Scottish turn of phrase, or Henry Mainbrace the captain's son ...
Joan Aiken of course plays on the folkloric characteristics of many of the crow family -- Mortimer has the corvid ability to mimic ("Nevermore!" is his chief and only phrase) and the tendency to thieve anything that catches his fancy, from a diamond ring to potato crisps -- but her intended audience may often be unaware of this reputation; in fact the raven's association with doom, gloom and death is not even hinted at. To me the type that Mortimer most resembles is a Zanni ("zany") character in the Italian commedia dell'arte who usually -- and maybe not coincidentally -- wears a dark or black mask with a beaky nose, and whose role in to create chaos in a household.
Finally, the cruise ship itself is the perfect theatre for Mortimer's strain of havoc: The Queen of Bethnal Green becomes a closed system where the bird can unwittingly create a train of disorder and confusion. Like a talented composer of miniatures Aiken skillfully reintroduces thematic material throughout the seventy-odd pages, even adding a pastiche popular song or two, all to the accompaniment of a doomed grand piano. Created for the popular children's TV series Jackanory in the seventies, the Arabel and Mortimer stories were programmes that I somehow missed even though the first of our children was growing up at the time. Thank goodness then that there are another dozen stories still available for me to explore.
http://wp.me/s2oNj1-tie
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews