--- title: Joan Aiken's Wolves of Willoughby Chase: Read a 1963 Review description: The author was born Sept. 4, 1924 canonical: https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-03T22:31:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:41:28.861Z article:section: History og:title: Read the Review of Joan Aiken's 'Wolves of Willoughby Chase' og:description: The author was born Sept. 4, 1924 og:url: https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta245f97ee4eb0ddd/69886239428a9e7b1cccef2a/51fkbk5a5fl-_sx337_bo1204203200_.jpg?branch=production&width=339&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 339 og:image:height: 191 og:image:alt: Wolves of Willoughby Chase og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Review of Joan Aiken's 'Wolves of Willoughby Chase' twitter:description: The author was born Sept. 4, 1924 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta245f97ee4eb0ddd/69886239428a9e7b1cccef2a/51fkbk5a5fl-_sx337_bo1204203200_.jpg?branch=production&width=339&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read the Original Review of Joan Aiken's 'Masterpiece' _The Wolves of Willoughby Chase_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2015 10:31 PM UTC  Doubleday Books for Young Readers  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 3, 2015 10:31 PM UTC When Joan Aiken—who would have celebrated her 91st birthday on Friday—first appeared in the pages of TIME, the author didn’t even get the honor of having her full name in the review of her work. Rather, she was “Poet Conrad Aiken’s daughter Joan.” But, as we revisit that review in honor of the birth of the author, who died in 2004, it’s clear that her daughter-of designation didn’t mean that her talent was less than stand-alone. In fact, the unbylined reviewer raved in a 1963 pre-Christmas round-up of new books for children, the book she had written was the year’s stand-out story: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story from 1963, here in the TIME Vault:_** [From Pooh to Salinger](http://time.com/vault/issue/1963-12-13/page/123/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/"},"headline":"Read the Original Review of Joan Aiken's 'Masterpiece' The Wolves of Willoughby Chase","datePublished":"2015-09-03T22:31:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:41:28.861Z","description":"The author was born Sept. 4, 1924","url":"https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/","keywords":["Books","author"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta245f97ee4eb0ddd/69886239428a9e7b1cccef2a/51fkbk5a5fl-_sx337_bo1204203200_.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta245f97ee4eb0ddd/69886239428a9e7b1cccef2a/51fkbk5a5fl-_sx337_bo1204203200_.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wolves of Willoughby Chase","caption":"Wolves of Willoughby Chase","creditText":"Doubleday Books for Young Readers","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4022426/joan-aiken-wolves-of-willoughby-chase-review/","name":"Read the Original Review of Joan Aiken's 'Masterpiece' The Wolves of Willoughby Chase"}}]}] ```