The Books: The Children of Green Knowe (Lucy M. Boston)

Next on the children’s books:

61GQM0TA6SL._AA240_.jpgNext book on the shelf was given to me by Jean – The Children of Green Knowe by by L. M. Boston. Now – it appears that this book has been re-released – but my copy is an old hardcover – and on the front page is a huge note from some librarian: DISCARD. There are old-time black and white illustrations – and it has a cover that is kind of curling off in places. This is from a series of books (the so-and-so at Green Knowe) – and the one that we were totally obsessed with was The River at Green Knowe. We just LOVED that book – and I honestly cannot remember why. But I am sure we had very good taste. We were just OBSESSED with it.

Looking at the list of “Green Knowe” books on Amazon – it seems like The River at Green Knowe is not as popular- it doesn’t appear to have been re-released in paperback form.

Jean – why did we love that book so much??

Anyway – Jean came across The Children of Green Knowe at a yard sale, or a library sale … and of course immediately bought it for me.

The opening of the book kind of explains to me why we loved these books so much – It’s just chock FULL of British atmosphere. It’s like all those great books about kids being shunted off to relatives, on train carriages … Secret Garden, or Lion Witch and Wardrobe … little kids on their own, making their way …

From what I remember, this book is about a little boy who goes to stay with his great-grandmother at a place called Green Knowe. She lives in an old old house – almost like a castle – and from the moment he arrives very odd things start happening. Magical things. There’s a portrait in one of the rooms – an old oil painting of three children who used to live in the house way back in the 17th century. Great-grandmother tells her great-grandson stories about these kids .. and the little boy eventually starts to sense that the kids are still in the house. He finds their toys … he thinks he sees them, etc. etc. The way LM Boston describes this house … it’s like the house in Lion Witch and Wardrobe – You just SO want to explore this house!!

Here’s the first couple of paragraphs. Great writing, in my opinion.


From The Children of Green Knowe by by L. M. Boston.

A little boy was sitting in the corner of a railway carriage looking out at the rain, which was splashing against the windows and blotching downward in an ugly, dirty way. He was not the only person in the carriage, but the others were strangers to him. He was alone as usual. There were two women opposite him, a fat one and a thin one, and they talked without stopping, smacking their lips in between sentences and seeming to enjoy what they said as much as if it were something to eat. They were knitting all the time, and whenever the train stopped the click-clack of their needles was loud and clear like two clocks. It was a stopping train – more stop than go – and it had been crawling along through the flooded country for a long time. Everywhere there was water – not sea or rivers or lakes, but just senseless flood water with the rain splashing into it. Sometimes the railway lines were covered by it, and then the train-noise was quite different, softer than a boat.

“I wish it was the Flood,” thought the boy, “and that I was going to the Ark. That would be fun! Like the circus. Perhaps Noah had a whip and made all the animals go round and round for exercise. What a noise there would be, with the lions roaring, elephants trumpeting, pigs squealing, pigs braying, horses whinnying, bulls bellowing, and cocks and hens always thinking they were going to be trodden on but unable to fly up on to the roof, where all the other birds were singing, screaming, twittering, squawking and cooing. What must it have sounded like, coming along on the tide? And did Mrs. Noah just knit, knit, and take no notice?”

The two women opposite him were getting ready for the next station. They packed up their knitting and collected their parcels and then sat staring at the little boy. He had a thin face and very large eyes; he looked patient and rather sad. They seemed to notice him for the first time.

“What’s your name, son?” asked the fat woman suddenly. “I’ve never seen you on this train before.” This was always a question he dreaded. Was he to say his unexpected real name or his silly pet names?

“Toseland,” he said.

“Toseland! That’s a real old-fashioned name in these parts. There’s Fen Toseland, and Toseland St. Agnes and Toseland Gunning. What’s your Christian name?”

“That is it – Toseland.”

“Do your mum and dad live round here, son?”

“No, they live in Burma.”

“Fancy that now! That’s a long way away. Where are you going, then?”

“I don’t know. That is, I’m going to my great-granmother Oldknow at Green Noah. The station in Penny Soaky.”

“That’s the next station after this. We get out here. Don’t forget – the next station. And make sure there’s some dry land before you get out of the train. The floods are bad there. Bye-bye, cheerio.”

They got out, shouting, and joking with the porters and kissing the people who had come to meet them. They started off into the hissing rain as if they loved it. Toseland heard the fat woman’s loud voice saying, “Oh, I don’t mind this. I like it, it’s our home-rain, not like that dirty London water.”

The train jogged on again and now Toseland was quite alone. He wished he had a family like other people – brothers and sisters, even if his father were away. His mother was dead. He had a stepmother but he hardly knew her and was miserably shy of her. He had been at a boarding-school, and for the last holidays he had been left behind to stay with the head mistress, Miss Spudd, and her old father. They meant to be kind to him, but they never spoke to him without saying ‘dear’. It was “Finish up your porridge, dear, we don’t want you to get thin”, or “Put on your coat, dear, we don’t want you to catch cold”, or “Get ready for church, dear, we don’t want you to grow up to be a heathen.” And every day after breakfast, “Run along to your room, dear, we want to read the papers.”

But now his great-grandmother Oldknow had written that he was to come and live with her. He had never seen her, but she was his own great-grandmother, and that was something. Of course she would be very old. He thought of some old people he had seen who were so old that it frightened him. He wondered if she would be frighteningly old. He began to feel afraid already, and to shake it off he thought about Green Noah and Penny Soaky. What queer names! Green Noah was pure mystery, but Penny Soaky was friendly like a joke.

Suddenly the train stopped, and the porters were shouting, “Penny Soaky! Penny Soaky! Penny Soaky!” Toseland had no sooner got the door open than a man wearing a taxi driver’s hat came along calling:

“Anybody here for Green Noah? Are you Master Toseland for Green Noah?”

“Oh yes, please. It’s me.”

“This your luggage? Two more in the van? You stand here out of the rain while I get it.”

There were a few houses to be seen on one side of the line, and on the other nothing but flooded fields with hedges standing in the water.

“Come along,” said the taxi-man. “I’ve put all your luggage in the car. It’ll be dark before we get there and we’ve got to go through a lot of water.”

“Is it deep?”

“Not so deep, I hope, that we can’t get through.”

“If it rains forty days and forty nights will it be a real flood?”

“Sure enough it would.”

Toseland sat by the driver and they set off. The windscreen wipers made two clear fans on the windscreen through which he could see the road half covered with water, with ditches brimming on the other side. When they came near the bridge that crossed the river, the road disappeared under water altogether and they seemed to drive into the side of the river with a great splash that flew up against the windows; but it was only a few inches deep, and then they reached the humpbacked bridge and went up and over it, and down again into deeper water on the other side. This time they drove very carefully like bathers walking out into cold water. The car crept along making wide ripples.

“We don’t want to stick here,” said the driver, “this car don’t float.”

They came safely through that side too, and now the headlights were turned on, for it was growing dark, and Toseland could see nothing but rain and dazzle..

“Is it far?” he asked.

“Not very, but we have to go a long way round to get past the floods. Green Noah stands almost in the middle of it now, because the river runs alongside the garden. Once you get there you won’t be able to get out again till the flood goes down.”

“How will I get in, then?”

“Can you swim?”

“Yes, I did twenty strokes last summer. Will that be enough?”

“You’ll have to do better than that. Perhaps if you felt yourself sinking you could manage a few more?”

“But it’s quite dark. How will I know where to swim to?”

The driver laughed. “Don’t you worry. Mrs. Oldknow will never let you drown. She’ll see you get there all right. Now here we are. At least, I can’t go any further.” Toseland pushed the car door open and looked out. It had stopped raining. The car was standing in a lane of shallow water that stretched out into the dark in front and behind. The driver was wearing Wellington boots, and he got out and paddled round the car. Toseland was afraid that he would be left now to go on as best he could by himself. He did not like to show that he was afraid, so he tried another way of finding out.

“If I am going to swim,” he said, “what will you do with my luggage?”

“You haven’t got no gum boots, have you?” said the driver. “Come on, get on my shoulders and we’ll have a look round to see if anyone’s coming to meet you.” Toseland climbed on to his shoulders and they set off, but almost at once they heard the sound of oars, and a lantern came round the corner of the land rocking on the bows of a rowing boat. A man called out, “Is that Master Toseland?” The driver shouted back, “Is that Mr. Boggis?” but Toseland was speechless with relief and delight.

“Good evening, Master Toseland,” said Mr. Boggis, holding up the lantern to look at him, while Toseland looked too, and saw a nice old cherry-red face with bright blue eyes. “Pleased to meet you. I knew your mother when she was your size. I bet you were wondering how you were going to get home?” It was nice to hear somebody talking about ‘home’ in that way. Toseland felt much happier, and now he knew that the driver had been teasing him, so he grinned and said: “I was going to swim.”

The boat was moored to somebody’s garden gate while the two men put the trunk and tuck-box into it.

“You’ll be all right now,” said the taxi-man. “Good night to you both.”

“Good night, and thank you,” said Toseland.

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