Joan Delano Aiken MBE was an English writer specialising in supernatural fiction and children's alternate history novels. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature.
Lizza Aiken, daughter of Joan, studied in Paris with master teachers Etienne Decroux and Jacques LeCoq to become a mime. She toured with fringe theater groups, appearing in international festivals all over Europe in the 1970s and ’80s, before settling in Highgate, London. Lizza is now curating the Joan Aiken literary estate.