The Spiral Stair (Mark the Mountain Guide) - Tapa blanda

With Noah the boa using his coils to work the doughnut machine and with the three giraffes tangled upon the spiral stair, Mortimer's first night in a zoo was one to be remembered for a long, long time.

Joan Aiken, the daughter of the American poet and writer Conrad Aiken and Jessie Macdonald Aiken (also an author), was an immensely popular and prolific author who wrote almost a hundred novels for adults and children. The creator of the stories about Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer, which have been televised on the BBC, she wrote wonderful, quirky novels, full of humour and the unexpected, about alternative realities. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase won the 1965 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and was made into a film. Joan Aiken died in 2004.