Joan Delano Aiken (born
1924) is a
British novelist. She was born in
Rye,
East Sussex, into a family of writers, including her father
Conrad Aiken and her sister
Jane Aiken Hodge[?]. She worked for the
BBC and the
UNIC[?], before she started writing professionally, mainly
children's books[?] and
thrillers. For her books she received the
Guardian Award[?] (
1969) and the
Edgar Allan Poe Award[?] (
1972).