Arabel and Mortimer Series

Mortimer, Arabel and the Escaped Black Mamba

by Joan Aiken

Published 1 October 2002

A black mamba has escaped from the zoo and Arabel and Mortimer are missing.

The first story about Arabel and her pet raven Mortimer. In Arabel's Raven, Mr Jones, while driving his taxi, notives something bedraggled in the road. He stops and discovers an injured raven. He takes it home and his four-year-old daughter Arabel falls in love at first sight. 'His name is Mortimer,' she announces and Mortimer has found a home. A series of thefts and a robber quarrel are only two of the dramas in this delightful tale in which Mortimer and Arabel find their ways straight to the reader's heart.

The Spiral Stair

by Joan Aiken

Published January 1979

With Noah the boa using his coils to work the doughnut machine and with the three giraffes tangled upon the spiral stair, Mortimer's first night in a zoo was one to be remembered for a long, long time.

Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur

by Joan Aiken

Published January 1979

This is the fifth title about Arabel and her beloved but impossible raven, Mortimer. An enormous hole is being dug in the park and rumour has it that King Arthur's round table is buried there. None of this interests Mortimer however; his fancy has been taken by the giant grass-cutting machine, the LawnSabre. Mortimer finally gets to work the machine but with disastrous consequences for the round table and the sword Excalibur! Another funny and outrageous story about Arabel and Mortimer from Joan Aiken and Quentin Blake.

Arabel, Mortimer and the Escaped Black Mamba

by Joan Aiken

Published 4 June 2015

When Arabel and the raven Mortimer spend a fun-packed evening with their favourite babysitter, Chris Cross, they have no idea of the chaos they create in their wake. A reckless game of dressing up and hide and seek results in a big crash, a trumpet wedged onto Mortimer's head and a milk shortage.

While Arabel, Mortimer and Chris are out replacing the milk, Arabel's parents return home to find the house empty and apparently ransacked. They fear the worst! Can it be that a black mamba has escaped from the zoo or has Arabel been kidnapped? Policemen, firemen and anxious ladies comb the streets in search of the missing trio, who are blissfully unaware of the chaos they have caused.