rambling philosophical text or perhaps a descrip-
tion of an odious secret society. His next discovery
is even more startling, for the book is still being
written. Every night a line or two is added at the
end, and the new remarks seem to be directed at
him. He follows their veiled advice, and his busi-
ness efforts begin to prosper as never before, al-
though his peers are increasingly distrustful of him.
As is usually the case with horror stories of
this sort, there is a price to be paid. The book be-
gins requiring that he perform minor obscenities,
and when he balks, his stream of good luck falters.
Properly chastised, he does as he is told, rationaliz-
ing his actions under this supernatural compulsion.
He begins to have doubts when it tells him to kill
the family dog, which has been avoiding him, but
attempts to do so anyway, thwarted by the inter-
cession of one of his daughters, who appears to
have some insight into what is going on. Then the
book orders him to kill her, and at last he finds the
strength to resist and even destroy the book, al-
though the effort is so great that he dies of the
strain. Irwin’s depiction of his gradual subversion
by greed and curiosity is masterful, and the story is
one of the classic tales of occult possession.
The Borrowers Series Mary Norton
(1952–1982)
A former stage actress, Mary Norton turned to
writing children’s books with The Magic Bed-Knob
(1943) and its sequel, Bonfires and Broomsticks
(1947), which together became the inspiration for
the 1971 Disney movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks,
but she is best known for the five adventures of the
Borrowers, a race of tiny human beings who live
hidden inside the house of a normal family, surviv-
ing by “borrowing” what they need. They made
their debut in The Borrowers(1952), a charming
story in which we learn that they hide because ter-
rible things happen whenever they are discovered
by normal-sized people.
They returned in The Borrowers Afield(1955).
When the human residents of the house begin to
suspect that the mysterious disappearances of food
and other items are the work of rats, they call in an
exterminator, so the Borrowers are forced to aban-
don their home under a grandfather clock and find
their way in the unknown outside world. Various
difficulties force them to move again in The Bor-
rowers Afloat(1959), and they are finally discov-
ered by humans in The Borrowers Aloft(1961), one
of whom imprisons two of their number for use as a
tourist attraction. The others contrive a clever res-
cue plan fraught with mild dangers and consider-
able humor. Norton returned after a 20-year gap to
add The Borrowers Avenged(1982), the weakest of
the set and largely a retelling of the previous two
volumes.
The Complete Adventures of the Borrowers
(1967) only includes the first four titles. Norton’s
only other fantasy book was the very short Are All
the Giants Dead?(1973). Her 1945 short story,
“Paul’s Tale,” is horror. There have been several im-
itators of the Borrowers stories, of which the most
successful is the Littles series by John Peterson.Boston, Lucy M.(1892–1990)
The British author Boston is known primarily as
the author of the Green Knowe series of gentle
children’s fantasies, all of which take place in the
environs of the estate named in the title. In The
Children of Green Knowe(1954), a contemporary
family lives a pleasant life despite the presence in
their home of ghosts of a past generation. In fact,
the ghosts provide some insulation between the
protagonists and the sometimes disturbing outside
world, as we see in the sequel, The Chimneys of
Green Knowe(1958, also published as The Trea-
sure of Green Knowe). One of the family’s most
valuable paintings has been loaned to a museum,
and the ghosts associated with it are forced to fol-
low along.
The children discover that there is strangeness
outside the walls as well when they make a voyage
of discovery in The River at Green Knowe(1959),
and a missing gorilla takes refuge on the grounds of
the haunted house in A Stranger at Green Knowe
(1961). An Enemy at Green Knowe(1964) is consid-
erably darker than the earlier titles and probably
the best in the series. The children investigate the
secrets of magic while pitting their wits against a
witch who is plotting against them. The Stones
of Green Knowe(1976) is partially set during the
12th century, when the house was first constructed.Boston, Lucy M. 29