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Lucy M Boston
Green Knowe is a book I love to come back to and doing so is oddly appropriate as, in many ways, it is a book about nostalgia and home and belonging. There is a feeling when reading an old favourite book of familiarity, comfort and security that is similar to that Tolly feels when coming to Green Knowe for the first time. When entering Green Knowe he finds a world full of mirrors and shadows, dancing versions of reality that add texture, mystery and magic to the place and when reading Green Knowe I am drawn into that world of depth and mystery and wonder. It is a book full of magic, not the bombastic earth shattering magic of wizard's towers and fire breathing dragons but the subtle everyday magics of music and stories and a closeness to nature. It is a playful, unpredictable, wild magic and blurs the line between imaginitive make believe and reality in a way that children are so good at but that adults sometimes lose.
Tolly's granmother, Linnet, is no such adult. She is as full of a sense of wonder and play as Tolly is and makes it impossible for me to feel that she is just humouring him. The writing throughout is some of the most beautiful I can think of, Lucy Boston had a particular ability to choose the perfect simile and her writing frequently makes me think "Yes! That." Footsteps like wounds in the snow, the lines on Mrs Olldknow's face making her more and more like herself - unlike some books the fact that this beautiful writing jumps out at me doesn't break my imersion in the story. It is like a cool breeze washing over me, bringing a pleasurable shudder, before settling back to the comforting fireside of the story.
It reads like an oasis from the outside world, something reinforced by the floods which surround Green Knowe and snow that makes them feel insulated from normality. This is a perfect feeling for a Christmas book, I have become more and more appeciative of Christmas as a refuge away from the hustle and bustle of capitalism and the need for a job. For a while we can imagine a world where our curiosities and whims steer us and that is very much the world of Green Knowe. It is also a book that carries the reassurance that this comfort isn't just a fleeting abberation, the stories of the house, both those told by Mrs Oldknow and those that live in the fabric of the house and gardens, give a sense of security and resiliance to carry beyond that refuge.
It doesn't feel that this is an exclusorary magic, while Tolly is accepted and feels at home partly by dint of his family and his name I have never imagined reading it that Linnet and Toby and Alexander would have turned me away if I had been there and believed in them. This is done more in the feel of the writing and the characterisation than in the actual plot, the stories suggest that to work there you had to be related to someone already there and the casting of 'gipsies' as thieves and practitioners of a dark magic is very much of its time. Part of this sense of inclusion come from having children as the caretakers of the house's history, while it is a story built of traditions it feels like the inherent curiosity and inquisitiveness of children (particularly Linnet) give those traditions the flexibility to include.
The fact that the place is real adds to the magic, when I went a couple of years ago so much of it felt just right that I had that wonderful feeling as Tolly must have on arrival, a sense of familiarity amidst the strangeness. Diana Boston does lovely tours and I would highly recommend a visit. For lots more lovely discussion of Green Knowe look on the hashtag #GreeneChristmas where lots of people discussed it recently.
The illustrations by Peter Boston are wonderful, a mix of details and the wilde feel of magic. Reading about them does make me long for an early hardback edition with full bleed pages as only some of those are preserved in the Puffin edition!
The wild and magical, mostly peaceful but at times scary too.
Feste's sign.
The mouse in both illustration and model form.
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