Black hearts in Battersea. Illustrated by Robin Jacques

Blurb

Black Hearts in Battersea is a children's novel by Joan Aiken first published in 1964. The second book in the Wolves Chronicles, it is loosely a sequel to her earlier Wolves of Willoughby Chase. The book is set in a slightly altered historical England—during the reign of King James III—in the early 19th century, and follows the adventures of Simon, an orphan whose plans to study painting in London are derailed by high adventure. Aiken was inspired to create an atmosphere of important events having already transpired offstage, and also included an involved "Dickensian plot" which she believed to complement the habit many children have of rereading or having a book reread to them.