The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken is The Complete Armitage Family Stories. I must admit that I had never read any of this series, nor even heard of them, but what a delight they are. Joan Aiken had such a wild imagination and a great sense of humour, these stories  although aimed at younger readers, like all well written books are entertaining for all ages. I got the impression that writing these stories was the author’s happy place, and that she must have been very attached to the characters. It turns out that the family was based on her own family, she told the stories to her younger brother and the children  featured in the stories were based on their older brother and sister who were away at school.

They were written and published from 1958 with the last ones being published in 2008, four years after her death. They feature the children of the Armitage family, Mark and Harriet, and they came about because when she was on honeymoon Mrs Armitage found a wishing stone (one with a hole in it) and wished for a big house in the country and two children with cheerful and energetic natures who will never mope or sulk or get bored – and it would be nice if they had a fairy godmother.

As it happens they have  a lot more than that, including a pet unicorn, griffins, a friendly ghost, there’s an enchanted garden and the neighbourhood is populated by elderly fairy ladies – don’t call them witches!

On the back of the book Philip Pullman said ‘She was a literary treasure.’ I think he was correct.