The Children of Green Knowe - a Christmas favorite [Video]

The Children of Green Knowe is the first of the six children's novels written by Lucy M. Boston about the fictional manor house of Green Knowe. The following description of the novel and the television series is posted on Wikipedia.

The novel concerns the visit of a young boy, Toseland, to the magical house of Green Knowe. The house is tremendously old, dating from the Norman Conquest, and has been continually inhabited by Toseland's ancestors, the d'Aulneaux, later Oldknowe or Oldknow, family. Toseland crosses floodwaters by night to reach the house and his great-grandmother, Linnet Oldknow, who addresses him as Tolly.

Over the course of the novel, Tolly explores the rich history of his family, which pervades the house like magic. He begins to encounter what appear to be the spirits of three of his forebears—an earlier Toseland (nicknamed Toby), Alexander, and an earlier Linnet—who lived in the reign of Charles II. These meetings are for the most part not frightening to Tolly; they continually reinforce the sense of belonging that the house embodies. In the evenings, Mrs. Oldknow entertains Tolly with stories about the house and the children who lived and live there. Surrounded by the rivers and the floodwater, sealed within its ancient walls, Green Knowe is a sanctuary of peace and stability in a world of unnerving change.

The book was adapted for television in 1986 in the BBC production The Children of Green Knowe, starring Alec Christie as Tolly, Daphne Oxenford as Mrs. Oldknow and Polly Maberly as Linnet Oldknow.

The television series is available on YouTube. It is a Christmas favorite for me. If you watch the series, I think that you will see why. The series is in nine parts.

1 of 9
2 of 9
3 of 9
4 of 9
5 of 9
6 of 9
7 of 9
8 of 9
9 of 9

Mrs. Boston did not write the novels until her sixties and I did not discover them until late in life. I then read as much of her works I could obtain through inter-library loan in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Maureen Kincaid Speller wrote an article on the Green Knowe novels, "An Exploration of Green Knowe," for Charmed Life fanzine. It can be found here. I highly recommend all Mrs. Boston's novels.