When the girls get in the way they are sent to live at the school-come-workhouse run by the gluttonous Gertrude Brisket, from where they are rescued by the resourceful young Simon who lives in the Willoughby Chase woods. In cahoots with the slimy cheese-referencing Mr Grimshaw, she plans to execute a covetous plan that will see her inherit the Chase and all the family wealth. It is this governess, who goes by the wonderful aptronym of Leticia Slighcarp, who is the baddy of the piece. When young Bonnie's father leaves their home at Willoughby Chase to take her ailing mother on a curative trip, he arranges for his orphaned niece Sylvia to come up from London to stay and employs a distant relation as a governess for the two girls.

The action takes place in 1832 in a mythical England ruled by King James III, with a re-arranged geography that is connected to mainland Europe by a tunnel through which the fearful wolves arrive, taking over the countryside. The story has all the ingredients of a rollicking children's thriller-a gritty young heroine, absent parents, a wicked governess, an old mansion house with secret passages, moors inhabited by wolves and just enough unreality to make sure there are no nightmares at bedtime.

Published in 1962, the book is now something of a classic, loved by children and remembered with affection by adults, but I have to admit to it passing me by as an unenthusiastic young reader. The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase is a spooky Victorian tale adapted for the stage by Russ Tunney from the award-winning children's novel by Joan Aiken.

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