It was a dark and stormy night (of course!) when Mortimer entered the life of Arabel and the Jones family – and Rumbury Town N.W.3 and-a-half would never be the same again. Arabel’s Raven is the first of the many tales of his adventures with the Jones Family told by Joan Aiken and masterfully characterised by Quentin Blake’s illustrations. The devoted pair appeared on a series of Jackanory readings, and then in books and a puppet series for the BBC which earned them a following of fans of all ages.
It was love at first sight – and forever – for the pair who Joan Aiken rather wickedly described as her version of the relationship between the ego and the id – Arabel never does anything wrong, and Mortimer does what he likes:
Before too long chaos reigns in Rumbury Town, and Mortimer (through no fault of his own of course!) is in the thick of it:
Amazingly he does, with the evil squirrel strapped to his back, and is soon holed up in the gangsters’ hideout – while Arabel goes into a decline, wondering where her friend can be? But soon everyone is on his trail… and now strange things are happening at Rumbury Tube station, but no one can solve the mystery?
Pretty soon everyone is going round the bend, and it is up to Arabel to keep her wits about her and unravel the hilarious trail of chaos that leads her back to Mortimer…will she ever be parted from him again?
“Nevermore!” says Mortimer.
* * * * * * *
Read more about Arabel & Mortimer and the BBC Puppet Series
on the Joan Aiken Website
NEW EDITIONS now out from Puffin Books
Bumper edition with Six Hilarious Stories!
Joan Aiken 
This sounds a perfect introduction to M and A, especially for one like me who has yet to fully delve into their adventures. Good too to see Mortimer gets a full page Quentin Blake illustration in the Oxford Companion to Fairytales. And of course, as I understand, a certain Lizza Aiken gets involved in the storytelling as the series progresses…
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Hooray for Mortimer – I didn’t know about this added glory! And yes it’s true… when the opportunity arose I couldn’t resist a little arm twisting… I had children of just the right age causing family chaos themselves, so writing about the Joneses was a gift, and being involved with the puppets too – absolutely brilliant!
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What lucky children they must have been! I loved reading about Mortimer when I was small, though I remember being rather traumatised when he was forcibly washed.
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His indignation is so well expressed, and the awful affront. I quoted it in the Spring Cleaning blog – see picture above, and the name of the story said it all – Mortimer’s Cross!
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‘Mortimer’s Cross’ is, by the way, a lovely closet reference to an actual battle during the Wars of the Roses, as I’m sure Joan would have known:
http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/warsoftheroses/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=25
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Her encyclopaedic knowledge was second only to yours!
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If only!
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I do so love Mortimer, and the books are ideal read-alouds. For years, the A&M books were a favorite go-to present for my kids’ friends’ birthdays.
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Aaah, thank you! I’m so happy to have these Puffin Omnibus editions coming out, there’s going to be a second one this autumn, so it’s a chance for families to collect the whole set!
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