Lucy M. Boston

Lucy Maria Boston (1892-1990) was a British author noted for her longevity; she did not have her first book published until she was over 60. She is best known for her Green Knowe books, inspired by her home The Manor in Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire, one of the oldest permanently inhabited houses in Britain. Born Lucy Wood in Southport, Lancashire, and educated at a girls' boarding school on the Sussex coast, she married Harold Boston in 1917, and moved to The Manor in 1939 (erroneously given as 1937 in her autobiography), shortly after separating from her husband. Her books were illustrated by her son Peter (1918-1999).

She also had a deep love of classical music, and she made a lot of patchwork, as well as being a keen gardener well into her nineties.

Books

The Green Knowe series:

*"The Children of Green Knowe" (1954)
*"The Chimneys of Green Knowe aka Treasure of Green Knowe" (1958)
*"The River at Green Knowe" (1959)
*"A Stranger at Green Knowe" (1961)
*"An Enemy at Green Knowe" (1964)
*"The Stones of Green Knowe" (1976)

Other fictional works

*"Yew Hall" (1954)
*"The Sea Egg" (1967)
*"The Castle of Yew" (1968)
*"Persephone aka Strongholds" (1969)
*"The House That Grew" (1969)
*"The Horned Man: Or, Whom Will You Send To Fetch Her Away" (1970)
*"Nothing Said" (1971)
*"The Guardians of the House" (1974)
*"The Fossil Snake" (1975)

Non-fiction

*"Memory in a House" (1973)
*"Perverse and Foolish: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth" (1979)

These two books were anthologised under the title "Memories" in 1992.

hort story

Lucy M. Boston also wrote a short story called "Curfew" which appeared in the anthology "The House of the Nightmare: And Other Eerie Tales", published in 1967.

External links

*A gallery of the real Green Knowe, [http://www.greenknowe.co.uk/gallery.html The Manor at Hemingford Grey]
*A paper by David Lenander examining the themes in the book The River At Green Knowe, [http://www.tc.umn.edu/~d-lena/CrosscurrentsAtGreenKnowe.html Crosscurrents in The River at Green Knowe by L.M. Boston]
* [http://www.fantasyliterature.net/bostonlucy.html Synopses, cover art, and reviews at FantasyLiterature.net]