The Cuckoo Tree

At the height of her powers, there's no-one to match Aiken for the verve and ingenuity of her stories, and for heroines, there's precious few to match the inimitable Dido Twite. Returned at last from her voyaging, Did quickly becomes ensnared in another Hanoverian plot to do something utterly mad at the coronation ceremony of the new king. Witches and smugglers and lost twins and scheming cousins and cheerful smugglers and sinister puppet shows are all elements of this rollicking tale. Fantastic.

Dido Twite returns to England in this fifth entry in Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles, a series of wonderful alternative-timeline fantasies. Determined to get to London to deliver some dispatches vital to the Admiralty, Dido instead finds herself stranded on the London Road north of Chichester with an injured companion. Here she must confront a variety of local mysteries and plots which, not surprisingly, are all part of a larger Hanoverian scheme.

With a sinister and racing-obsessed lady, a Caribbean witch, a local witch, a pair of twins separated at birth, a plot to extort money from a noble family, an assassination attempt involving rolling a cathedral off its foundations, and a group of patriotic rum-runners; Dido has more than enough show more to contend with in this hilarious melodrama. Aiken is in top form in this rollicking non-stop adventure, peopled with her usual cast of quirky characters, and full of those improbable and highly satisfying plot developments for which she is justly famous.

Sadly, this was the last title in Aiken's Wolves Chronicles that was illustrated, in this case by Susan Obrant. show less

Our young heroine, Dido Twite, has finally returned to England after years away in "furrin parts overseas" but instead of a calm steady progress from the south coast to London, her place of birth, we find her hurtling in a death-defying dash -- in the dark -- on a mission of the greatest urgency. When the carriage-and-pair she and her fellow passenger, Captain Owen Hughes, are travelling in is stranded in the middle of nowhere after an accident, she is precipitated into an adventure involving conspiracies, inheritances, smuggling, witchery and, of course, danger.

Naturally this is almost everything that one expects to find in one of Joan Aiken's Wolves Chronicles, but we also hope we'll encounter friendship, loyalty, bravery, honesty and show more resourcefulness, especially when we know that Dido is involved. She'll need all those virtues in this further instalment of the alternate history series in which the Hanoverian monarchs are the pretenders to the British throne rather than the Stuarts.

In addition, for Aiken fans there's the draw of knowing that much of this story is set in a corner of the world Joan knew very well -- part of the South Downs now in West Sussex, on the road running northeast from Chichester towards the historic town of Petworth. Not only can we feel the genuine sense of place that comes with a novel set in real locations but also the emotional connections the author may have had for here -- albeit with frequent dark shadows obscuring our view.

There are rather a lot of those dark shadows. What reason could anyone have for stopping urgent dispatches getting to London before the new king's coronation? Why do the Gentlemen whom Dido meets after the accident conceal their identities? Who are the sinister old biddies associated with the mysterious Tegleaze Manor? Who exactly are the two strange youngsters connected with this patch of Sussex countryside? Why are Miles Mystery's mannikins causing unease in Petworth, and why does Dido find the tunes played by a hidden oboist oddly familiar? And how is an elephant instrumental in helping thwart a dastardly plan to slide St Paul's Cathedral and its congregation into the Thames?

To say much more would be to reveal too much of the ins and outs of this involving fantasy. The story has a forward momentum which is scarcely held up by the usual cast of several dozen characters with which Aiken peoples the chronicles. Lovers of literature will appreciate turns of phrase such as this, plucked at random, of a teenager's "sad smile, like a wind-ripple over a field of long grass"; while those with a penchant for detail and references will also enjoy cryptic allusions to Russell Thorndyke's Dr Syn novels, the image of the coat of arms of the Worshipful Company of Cutlers and the coincidence of title and publication date of Charles Dickens' first novel, among many other examples.

At the heart of The Cuckoo Tree, as with many of Joan Aiken's novels, lies love. Dido Twite has been aching to get back home after voyaging around the world for a number of years on wild goose chases, her principal concern being to reconnect with people who showed her care and affection. Will it be her father, or someone else in her depleted family? Or will it be the young man who nursed her through an illness and who kindly gave her rides on his donkey?

All of a sudden she felt lonely -- almost choked with loneliness. Tobit's got Cris, she thought, and Cap'n Hughes has his boy Owen, but who've I got? Such thoughts were not sensible, she knew . . . But all the hospitality in the world is not the same has having someone of your own.

Does she get someone of her own, or will she forever be the cuckoo in the nest? Perusal of The Cuckoo Tree will point the way. show less

When Dido Twite sets foot back on English soil, more mischief awaits. As her friend Captain Hughes recovers from a carriage accident, Dido stays at the Dogkennel Cottages and meets the odd inhabitants of Tegleaze Manor: strange old Lady Tegleaze, her nephew, Tobit, and his wizened, witchy nurse, Sannie. Soon suspicious things happen. A priceless miniature is stolen. Tobit is framed and then kidnapped. A twin sister is found. And when Dido catches a glimpse of her rascally father in Petworth, she is sure she's in the midst of another Hanoverian plot. Can she get to London to warn the king and save St. Paul's Cathedral from sliding into the Thames?

Fun. Interestingly enough, it seems to make a nice, rounded-off end to the arc that began in Black Hearts and went on in Nightbirds - the adventures of Simon and Dido. It's not the end, I know, but it reads like it was intended to be. And Owen is a complete cipher in here - he doesn't even match the Owen in The Whispering Mountain, there's no mention of his spectacles (not to mention the whole question of - how did Captain Hughes end up back as captain of his old ship, without his family being informed? Why didn't he try to contact anyone when he got back? Etc.). That aside, this is actually an excellent story - Dido runs into real problems (real in several senses of the word) and does her best to solve them. No magic - well, ok, not show more much magic (just Aswell and the twins). The "witches'" power is mostly drugs and tricks - maybe not all, but most. And the plot, as usual, fails partly by brave action against it and partly of its own weight (more or less literally). I like this one, better than the more fantastical stories that got inserted into the series later. show less

When Dido Twite first popped up in [b:Black Hearts in Battersea|36637|Black Hearts in Battersea (The Wolves Chronicles, #2)|Joan Aiken|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388981387l/36637._SY75_.jpg|1145979] I found her a little annoying, maybe I was meant to and maybe not, but by the time I was halfway through [b:Nightbirds on Nantucket|36644|Nightbirds on Nantucket (The Wolves Chronicles, #3)|Joan Aiken|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385190633l/36644._SX50_.jpg|3366948] I loved her. I still love her, and even the overload of dialect/cant doesn’t bother me (at least not until the new King gets involved, my God I didn't know what he was saying half the time. As show more is the case with many politicians it might not have mattered anyway).

To have a chance at liking these books as much as I do you have to forget about suspending any disbelief, especially in the case of The Cuckoo Tree. It's just not possible. Instead you will need the ability to keep your disbelief intact while realizing that you don't have to believe everything you read in order to enjoy it. show less

This book was actually the first one I read from this series, back when I was about 9 years old. I absolutely loved it and I loved its sequel, Dido and Pa. This books is what sparked my interest in the whole series and I'm so happy to get the chance to read it now in the correct order! I wanted to know if, after reading about all of Dido's other adventures, whether my opinion on this novel would be different or not ... so here is my review:

Once again, we are in for a wacky adventure. Every time Dido had a remark or thought about something, I couldn't help but laugh - she is just that funny and sarcastic of a character. There's quite a bit of witchy magic going on in this novel, which was super fun to read about. This novel was a bit show more darker than Dido's time on Nantucket, but I really liked that because it gave it a bit more depth. Of course, depth doesn't mean that this novel was more serious; if anything, the story was even wackier than any before it! We have the presence of an elephant again, which was something that I just didn't understand, and didn't like as much, but overall, this story was just as fun to read as every other one in the series. After rereading this book, I think it is still one of my favorite novels in this series! Now, time for the next one! show less