Midwinter Nightingale

[sawyl]

Time to take stock of Joan Aiken's Midwinter Nightingale, the penultimate book in her Willoughby Chase series. Once again we find ourselves in the company of Simon Bayswater and Dido Twite, this time in a version of England that clearly isn't our own: the country seems to have split itself into autonomous provinces and, with Richard IV near death, a power struggle for the throne looks increasingly likely.

Just returned from a trip to Nantucket, Dido finds herself summoned by the Archbishop of Winchester and Wessex. On her departure, she finds herself kidnapped and dragged off to some sort of school. Simon, meanwhile, is taking the Wetlands Express to visit the dying king in his seclusion. On the train he encounters the air-headed Jorinda Coldacre, who immediately falls madly in love with him whilst also expounding some of the background: Baron Magnus Ruhr, a powerful werewolf and Jorinda's father, has been released from the Tower having supposedly been cured and that it is her intention to visit her father at Fogrum Hall to affect a reconciliation.

It soon transpires that Dido has been caught up in Magnus' plot to help the Duchess of Burgundy claim the throne whilst also taking revenge on those who annulled his marriage to Lady Adelaide 13 years before, in order to free her to marriage King Richard. Richard, with Simon at his side, seems to be flitting in and out of rationality having become obsessed with the whereabouts of King Alfred's Coronet which is, apparently, required for the investiture of the next king.

While there are some fine moments of comedy in the book — Jorinda trying to convince her grumpy grandfather to reply to a chain letter from the Knights Templar is my favourite — the overall tone is melancholy and its hard not to associate King Richard's decline with the fact that Midwinter Nightingale was written toward the very end of Aiken's life. Still it's good to see Simon and Dido in action again and to discover just how and why Simon manage to become king, even if the book doesn't quite recapture past glories.