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Green Knowe #4
A Stranger at Green Knowe
L. M. Boston's thrilling and chilling tales of Green Knowe, a haunted manor deep in an overgrown garden in the English countryside, have been entertaining readers for half a century. Now the children of Green Knowe--both alive and ghostly--are back in appealing new editions.
The spooky original illustrations have been retained, but dramatic new cover art by Brett Helquist (illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events) gives the books a fresh, timeless appeal for today's readers.
The spooky original illustrations have been retained, but dramatic new cover art by Brett Helquist (illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events) gives the books a fresh, timeless appeal for today's readers.
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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762 people want to read
About the author
Lucy M. Boston
32 books111 followersLucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her "Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels published by Faber between 1954 and 1976. The setting is Green Knowe, an old country manor house based on Boston's Cambridgeshire home at Hemingford Grey. For the fourth book in the series, A Stranger at Green Knowe (1961), she won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.[1]
During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.
During her long life, she distinguished herself as a writer, mainly of children’s books, and as the creator of a magical garden. She was also an accomplished artist who had studied drawing and painting in Vienna, and a needlewoman who produced a series of patchworks.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
December 5, 2022
Yes indeed, Lucy M. Boston's 1961 (and Carnegie Medal winning) A Stranger at Green Knowe (which is the fourth book of the Green Knowe novels) certainly is very much different from the only other book of the series I have read to date, namely the first one, The Children of Green Knowe (which I read years before joining Goodreads and have also not yet reviewed). For the Tolly (Toseland) character of The Children of Green Knowe is in fact absent for the entirety of A Stranger at Green Knowe ands which I really do majorly regret since Tolly exploring his great-grandmother's (Mrs. Oldknow's) ancient and historically significant house and meeting up with the child-ghosts of some of his ancestors is definitely my favourite part of the first novel, of The Children of Green Knowe.
And that Mrs Oldknow in A Stranger at Green Knowe is not paying host to Tolly, but instead to Ping, to a young Burmese orphan and refugee (who soon after he arrives at Green Knowe is happily exploring the bushes and trees of Toseland Thicket but not really the house) and that there is not really all that much regarding Green Knowe as a magical and haunted place in A Stranger at Green Knowe, that Ping is simply enjoying and revelling in the natural beauty of Toseland Thicket, I for one do find this rather regrettable and annoying. For I really do massively miss Toby's absence and the equal absence of ghosts and magic in A Stranger at Green Knowe and personally even kind of wish that The Children of Green Knowe had also been awarded the Carnegie Medal (although I do realise that many seem to consider A Stranger at Green Knowe as being the best book of the series, but that I myself definitely do absolutely prefer The Children of Green Knowe).
Now with regard to A Stranger at Green Knowe as a tale in and of itself, there is actually very much a large backstory so to speak, since Lucy M. Boston's text in fact begins in the Congo, where a young gorilla is separated from his family group and captured in order to make the long journey from his tropical home to the concrete realm of an urban zoo. And indeed that in 1961, Boston textually shows with A Stranger at Green Knowe said zoo to be pretty much horrible and that Hanno the gorilla has basically been taken from an eden-like existence of liberty in the Congolese jungle to a restrictive and tediously mundane life of captivity, this is not only thought provoking (and with beautifully evocative descriptions by Lucy M. Boston), but it also shows that with regard to animal rights and being critical of zoos how far ahead of her time Boston was in many ways (and that for this, I can even cheer A Stranger at Green Knowe being awarded the 1961 Carnegie Medal, even with my reading preference still being The Children of Green Knowe and likely always remaining this).
Finally, strictly comparing A Stranger at Green Knowe to the first novel, to The Children of Green Knowe, my rating for Lucy M. Boston's story would definitely be three stars (and with certainly also a bit of textual disappointment at the lack of ghostly magic and there being no Tolly present). However, Boston's wonderful textual descriptions in A Stranger at Green Know of Hanno the gorilla's jungle home, the critical musings regarding zoos and animal rights and Ping's connection with Hanno and how he as a refugee and displaced person totally gets and knows how unhappy and lonely Hanno must feel in captivity at the zoo, and that therefore, when Ping discovers the escaped gorilla hiding out in Toesland Thicket he of course decides to hide Hanno and to try to protect him, yes, this has certainly textually warmed my heart and enough so to consider not a three but a four star rating for A Stranger at Green Knowe (and to also not at all find Ping's fibs and half-truths not only unproblematic but actually even necessary and understandable, since first and foremost Ping wants to protect Hanno and to make sure the gorilla is not recaptured in A Stranger at Green Knowe).
And that Mrs Oldknow in A Stranger at Green Knowe is not paying host to Tolly, but instead to Ping, to a young Burmese orphan and refugee (who soon after he arrives at Green Knowe is happily exploring the bushes and trees of Toseland Thicket but not really the house) and that there is not really all that much regarding Green Knowe as a magical and haunted place in A Stranger at Green Knowe, that Ping is simply enjoying and revelling in the natural beauty of Toseland Thicket, I for one do find this rather regrettable and annoying. For I really do massively miss Toby's absence and the equal absence of ghosts and magic in A Stranger at Green Knowe and personally even kind of wish that The Children of Green Knowe had also been awarded the Carnegie Medal (although I do realise that many seem to consider A Stranger at Green Knowe as being the best book of the series, but that I myself definitely do absolutely prefer The Children of Green Knowe).
Now with regard to A Stranger at Green Knowe as a tale in and of itself, there is actually very much a large backstory so to speak, since Lucy M. Boston's text in fact begins in the Congo, where a young gorilla is separated from his family group and captured in order to make the long journey from his tropical home to the concrete realm of an urban zoo. And indeed that in 1961, Boston textually shows with A Stranger at Green Knowe said zoo to be pretty much horrible and that Hanno the gorilla has basically been taken from an eden-like existence of liberty in the Congolese jungle to a restrictive and tediously mundane life of captivity, this is not only thought provoking (and with beautifully evocative descriptions by Lucy M. Boston), but it also shows that with regard to animal rights and being critical of zoos how far ahead of her time Boston was in many ways (and that for this, I can even cheer A Stranger at Green Knowe being awarded the 1961 Carnegie Medal, even with my reading preference still being The Children of Green Knowe and likely always remaining this).
Finally, strictly comparing A Stranger at Green Knowe to the first novel, to The Children of Green Knowe, my rating for Lucy M. Boston's story would definitely be three stars (and with certainly also a bit of textual disappointment at the lack of ghostly magic and there being no Tolly present). However, Boston's wonderful textual descriptions in A Stranger at Green Know of Hanno the gorilla's jungle home, the critical musings regarding zoos and animal rights and Ping's connection with Hanno and how he as a refugee and displaced person totally gets and knows how unhappy and lonely Hanno must feel in captivity at the zoo, and that therefore, when Ping discovers the escaped gorilla hiding out in Toesland Thicket he of course decides to hide Hanno and to try to protect him, yes, this has certainly textually warmed my heart and enough so to consider not a three but a four star rating for A Stranger at Green Knowe (and to also not at all find Ping's fibs and half-truths not only unproblematic but actually even necessary and understandable, since first and foremost Ping wants to protect Hanno and to make sure the gorilla is not recaptured in A Stranger at Green Knowe).
December 31, 2013
I re-read all of the Green Knowe books repeatedly as a child, but reading them again as an adult has been a revelation. The descriptions and the ability to reveal the world the way a child sees it are unparalleled throughout, even in RIVER, which is less a novel than a series of vignettes strung together on the back of a river.
STRANGER is the most powerful and heartbreaking of the four I've re-read so far; it's the story of Hanno the gorilla, captured in the Congo as a baby, and Ping, an orphan who befriends him. The first fifty or so pages are entirely from Hanno's viewpoint and are simply magnificent. When we return to Green Knowe and Ping's story, we're brought back to the delight and charm and simplicity of youthful storytelling, which is maintained all the way up through the relentless and inevitable end. It's masterfully done.
And, in counterpoint, there are also moments of dreadful racism, made all the worse by the utter beauty they're surrounded by. In this, they're a product of their time, which is not to forgive the flaw, but to acknowledge what may be the only aspect of the books that (thankfully) isn't timeless.
STRANGER is the most powerful and heartbreaking of the four I've re-read so far; it's the story of Hanno the gorilla, captured in the Congo as a baby, and Ping, an orphan who befriends him. The first fifty or so pages are entirely from Hanno's viewpoint and are simply magnificent. When we return to Green Knowe and Ping's story, we're brought back to the delight and charm and simplicity of youthful storytelling, which is maintained all the way up through the relentless and inevitable end. It's masterfully done.
And, in counterpoint, there are also moments of dreadful racism, made all the worse by the utter beauty they're surrounded by. In this, they're a product of their time, which is not to forgive the flaw, but to acknowledge what may be the only aspect of the books that (thankfully) isn't timeless.
December 30, 2018
I've always had a messy relationship with the Green Knowe stories. They've appealed to me less than I suspect their components ought. In other words a mysterious story set in a strange house in the English countryside should have been my absolute jam and yet hasn't ever. I've tried The Children of Green Knowe several times now and failed to launch. Resolutely. Intensely. Might I even call it a bit dull? I might. But then, there's a lot here that doesn't appeal to me underneath the surface. Magic's never really been my bag in children's stories. Occasionally it can be, in the hands of say a Joan Aiken or Eva Ibbotson, but mostly it's not. Magic just feels like a slight dodge. Don't even start me on The Box Of Delights.
And so, you might be surprised to see that I picked up A Stranger At Green Knowe at all. I know I was, but it was the illustrations that caught my eye. That slender, determined line. The eyes of Hanno looking out from the page. Those isolated, clean, powerful moments. Peter Boston's work here is remarkable, dancing as it does between raw intimacy and intense power. He made me go back to Green Knowe and I am glad he did for A Stranger At Green Knowe is something else. It's the sort of book I want to refer to in every proposal for a project for now on, because I just want to say 'I want my work to feel like that moment just after you finish reading A Stranger At Green Knowe'.
Much of that moment is driven by the tone of A Stranger At Green Knowe. It's not unusual for a children's book to wear its heart upon its sleeve, or to make great statements of intent from the get-go. Somebody like Katherine Rundell has this great gift of giving you the blueprint of a story from page one, spilling out sensation and richness from the first page, before letting you actually discover what happens. And that's what A Stranger At Green Knowe does. It gives you that texture, that richness, of what it will be from the very start.
This book does not shy away from what it is. It is magic, but it is found and real and vital magic, and it is unsustainable magic and it is magic that hurts as much as it gives. There's a message here of love and tolerance and acceptance, but there's also something more. You learn that the impossible simply cannot be. Nothing lasts forever. Every bubble bursts. Even the one about Green Knowe. That doesn't take away the magic of what can be held within; rather, it asks you to look again at it. To savour that moment. To live.
I will go back to this series again, and it is all because of this book and its beautiful tragic heart.
And so, you might be surprised to see that I picked up A Stranger At Green Knowe at all. I know I was, but it was the illustrations that caught my eye. That slender, determined line. The eyes of Hanno looking out from the page. Those isolated, clean, powerful moments. Peter Boston's work here is remarkable, dancing as it does between raw intimacy and intense power. He made me go back to Green Knowe and I am glad he did for A Stranger At Green Knowe is something else. It's the sort of book I want to refer to in every proposal for a project for now on, because I just want to say 'I want my work to feel like that moment just after you finish reading A Stranger At Green Knowe'.
Much of that moment is driven by the tone of A Stranger At Green Knowe. It's not unusual for a children's book to wear its heart upon its sleeve, or to make great statements of intent from the get-go. Somebody like Katherine Rundell has this great gift of giving you the blueprint of a story from page one, spilling out sensation and richness from the first page, before letting you actually discover what happens. And that's what A Stranger At Green Knowe does. It gives you that texture, that richness, of what it will be from the very start.
This book does not shy away from what it is. It is magic, but it is found and real and vital magic, and it is unsustainable magic and it is magic that hurts as much as it gives. There's a message here of love and tolerance and acceptance, but there's also something more. You learn that the impossible simply cannot be. Nothing lasts forever. Every bubble bursts. Even the one about Green Knowe. That doesn't take away the magic of what can be held within; rather, it asks you to look again at it. To savour that moment. To live.
I will go back to this series again, and it is all because of this book and its beautiful tragic heart.
January 12, 2012
Boston is kind of amazing; I didn't read the Green Knowe books until I was in my late teens, and I always forget how good they are because they're not part of my childhood. Her prose is astonishing and subtle, and her stories are sharply insightful. This one, in particular - it falls into a bunch of racist traps, but for something written in 1961 it's so aware of Ping as an individual, and of the issues of exile and entrapment that it deals with. It doesn't pull its punches; for all the strong sense of mythology, there's so little in the way of rounded-off corners and sanitised childhood. The ending, in particular, is powerful and unexpected. I really need to get all of these - I picked up this and another in a library book sale, and they really are so good.
July 3, 2013
Boston is a very fine writer. At the same time I was reading this I was reading something else as well and I was struck by the difference in good writing and great writing. Boston's prose is lyrical and seemingly effortless. Once again she communicates the special relationship between the older woman and the child with pathos and eloquence. This is a theme that my emotions are susceptible to - ever since A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote, and right on through to The Witches by Roald Dahl. I don't usually read "series" books. However, this is the third I've read of these 'chronicles' (the fourth in the series) and I feel as though I'll eventfully read the others.
April 17, 2017
Just re read this and finished it - how appropriate it is to today. All kids should read this book - also Teresa May and Trump (if he can read)!! It's about a young refugee from Burma called Ping and a n escaped gorilla. Covers themes of family, sanctuary, home and freedom from repression - in short it is about Human Rights and maybe also animal rights
June 4, 2013
The eponymous stranger may be a primate, but he’s no human.
A Stranger at Green Knowe begins in equatorial Africa amongst a family of gorillas, far from the beloved mansion of Green Knowe. There, a 2-year-old gorilla and his sister are captured and their parents and baby brother killed. The gorilla, named Hanno by his captors, lost his sister, too, who wasted away on their journey from the Belgian Congo to England. Poor Hanno ends up, alone and lonely, at the Monkey House in a zoo near London’s Regent’s Park. There Ping — one of the three children in the lackluster The River at Green Knowe who has returned in this fourth book — first sees Hanno while on a school field trip to the zoo.
Like Hanno, Ping, himself an orphan and a refugee, knows firsthand the loss of home, family and a beloved forest, and the difficulty of adjusting to a very different way of life. On his own since age 6, Ping immediately feels a connection to the gorilla. Ping feels pity for the miserable Hanno in his too-small cage and his mind-numbingly dull life.
Due to a lucky intervention, Ping returns to Green Knowe to spend the summer with Mrs. Oldknow at Green Knowe. When Hanno, now 13 and weighing 2,000 pounds, escapes, it’s a foregone conclusion that he will make his way from London to Hertfordshire and Green Knowe. What makes the book magically are the adventures that Ping and Hanno will have once they chance upon one another again, about halfway through the book.
While I bemoaned yet another novel without Toseland (nicknamed Tolly), the unforgettable protagonist of the first two Green Knowe books, I greatly welcomed the return of Tolly’s great-grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and I enjoyed seeing Ping developed as a character. But what made A Stranger at Green Knowe better than The River at Green Knowe was strong bond between Ping and Hanno and between Ping and Mrs. Oldknow, sweetness without sentimentality. While A Stranger at Green Knowe lacks the magic of the first series’ first two books, The Children of Green Knowe and The Treasure of Green Knowe — both literally and figuratively — readers will still enjoy yet another visit to the world created by L.M. Boston.
A Stranger at Green Knowe begins in equatorial Africa amongst a family of gorillas, far from the beloved mansion of Green Knowe. There, a 2-year-old gorilla and his sister are captured and their parents and baby brother killed. The gorilla, named Hanno by his captors, lost his sister, too, who wasted away on their journey from the Belgian Congo to England. Poor Hanno ends up, alone and lonely, at the Monkey House in a zoo near London’s Regent’s Park. There Ping — one of the three children in the lackluster The River at Green Knowe who has returned in this fourth book — first sees Hanno while on a school field trip to the zoo.
Like Hanno, Ping, himself an orphan and a refugee, knows firsthand the loss of home, family and a beloved forest, and the difficulty of adjusting to a very different way of life. On his own since age 6, Ping immediately feels a connection to the gorilla. Ping feels pity for the miserable Hanno in his too-small cage and his mind-numbingly dull life.
Due to a lucky intervention, Ping returns to Green Knowe to spend the summer with Mrs. Oldknow at Green Knowe. When Hanno, now 13 and weighing 2,000 pounds, escapes, it’s a foregone conclusion that he will make his way from London to Hertfordshire and Green Knowe. What makes the book magically are the adventures that Ping and Hanno will have once they chance upon one another again, about halfway through the book.
While I bemoaned yet another novel without Toseland (nicknamed Tolly), the unforgettable protagonist of the first two Green Knowe books, I greatly welcomed the return of Tolly’s great-grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and I enjoyed seeing Ping developed as a character. But what made A Stranger at Green Knowe better than The River at Green Knowe was strong bond between Ping and Hanno and between Ping and Mrs. Oldknow, sweetness without sentimentality. While A Stranger at Green Knowe lacks the magic of the first series’ first two books, The Children of Green Knowe and The Treasure of Green Knowe — both literally and figuratively — readers will still enjoy yet another visit to the world created by L.M. Boston.
October 21, 2019
A Stranger at Green Knowe is the 4th book in the Green Knowe series for children. This series is so well written and has such imaginative plots that adults will like them as much as children. This book focuses on Ping, the Chinese orphan from the third book. Ping meets the gorilla Hanno at the zoo in London and feels a sympathetic bond. Both are refugees from their home countries and feel alone and isolated. Ping is invited by Mrs. Oldknow to spend the summer at Green Knowe and during his visit there Hanno escapes from the London Zoo and goes into hiding at Green Knowe.
A Stranger at Green Knowe won the Carnegie medal for best children’s book by a British subject in 1961. The first two books in the series were runners up for the medal.
A Stranger at Green Knowe won the Carnegie medal for best children’s book by a British subject in 1961. The first two books in the series were runners up for the medal.
June 14, 2017
In this story, a gorilla escapes from the zoo and hides in the thicket behind Green Knowe, where Ping befriends and hides him.
This is not my favorite of the Green Knowe books, because I'm very "meh" about monkey stories, especially when monkeys are constantly being compared to men. Monkeys, gorillas, or any other primate are NOT like men. Seriously? They are animals. They work on instinct. That's pretty much it. Are they interesting and majestic? Yes, sure! But it gets so annoying after the first 100 pages to constantly hear how the gorilla's expression was just SO human. bleh.
But of course, I adore the old house of Green Knowe, and the delightful grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and the enigmatic Ping!
I loved that Ping was the main character for this story. He's such a shining character, and he has a beautiful soul with deep and open thoughts. There's so much to explore in his character, so I'm glad he has his own story to bring out more of his personality and everything.
And naturally, the writing is so incredible that I can feel just what Ping is feeling. There's a spell of words woven around the Green Knowe stories that is really something special and true. I feel that I know that old house. I have lived there and slept there and playing in that garden. I've been swimming in the river, and come in for a late tea with Mrs. Oldknow.
I love this series so much!
This is not my favorite of the Green Knowe books, because I'm very "meh" about monkey stories, especially when monkeys are constantly being compared to men. Monkeys, gorillas, or any other primate are NOT like men. Seriously? They are animals. They work on instinct. That's pretty much it. Are they interesting and majestic? Yes, sure! But it gets so annoying after the first 100 pages to constantly hear how the gorilla's expression was just SO human. bleh.
But of course, I adore the old house of Green Knowe, and the delightful grandmother Mrs. Oldknow, and the enigmatic Ping!
I loved that Ping was the main character for this story. He's such a shining character, and he has a beautiful soul with deep and open thoughts. There's so much to explore in his character, so I'm glad he has his own story to bring out more of his personality and everything.
And naturally, the writing is so incredible that I can feel just what Ping is feeling. There's a spell of words woven around the Green Knowe stories that is really something special and true. I feel that I know that old house. I have lived there and slept there and playing in that garden. I've been swimming in the river, and come in for a late tea with Mrs. Oldknow.
I love this series so much!
March 14, 2019
This is a bizarre series. As far as I can tell, there is hardly any "magic" (a essential of the first book), and instead, we get a rather unbelievable "realistic" story that is all rah rah animal-rights. It had the feel of (well-written) propaganda.
The first part of the book is very much in the style of Bambi: A Life in the Woods. We get a good sense of how gorillas live in the Congo, and we get some supposition about what they feel and think.
The rest is in England, and so many parts of this just did not seem plausible. I think I could have accepted it better if it were in a magical setting!
I did not like how Ping lied over and over for his own purposes, regardless of how "uncomfortable" we are told that it made him feel. Not only does he lie to police and other authorities, but he lies to his ridiculously gracious and generous and open hostess. She trusts him so much (welcoming a total stranger into her home and giving him the run of the house and grounds), and he, in return, deceives her and steals from her and puts her in a bad position with the authorities.
The first part of the book is very much in the style of Bambi: A Life in the Woods. We get a good sense of how gorillas live in the Congo, and we get some supposition about what they feel and think.
The rest is in England, and so many parts of this just did not seem plausible. I think I could have accepted it better if it were in a magical setting!
I did not like how Ping lied over and over for his own purposes, regardless of how "uncomfortable" we are told that it made him feel. Not only does he lie to police and other authorities, but he lies to his ridiculously gracious and generous and open hostess. She trusts him so much (welcoming a total stranger into her home and giving him the run of the house and grounds), and he, in return, deceives her and steals from her and puts her in a bad position with the authorities.
September 26, 2018
Follows the exploits and escape of Hanno, a gorilla from the Congo living in a London zoo. He manages to free himself from the confines of his small cage and so begins a journey across the countryside to Green Knowe.
Ping who is an orphan is staying with old Mrs Knowe for the holidays, he has previously visited Hanno at the zoo and is thrilled to think he has made a bid for freedom. Once the two meet in the grounds of Green Knowe an unlikely friendship blossoms.
An enjoyable children’s book with beautiful illustrations. It doesn’t come close to the magic of the original Children of Green Knowe though.
Ping who is an orphan is staying with old Mrs Knowe for the holidays, he has previously visited Hanno at the zoo and is thrilled to think he has made a bid for freedom. Once the two meet in the grounds of Green Knowe an unlikely friendship blossoms.
An enjoyable children’s book with beautiful illustrations. It doesn’t come close to the magic of the original Children of Green Knowe though.
November 22, 2017
The fourth book in this wonderful series. Loved it!
April 12, 2026
When a book is awarded the Carnegie Medal after being judged the best children’s book published in 1961 you know it’s probably something special. And, as I can confirm, something special it certainly is.
Other titles in this Green Knowe series that I’ve so far read have had a quality all of their own, even if they’ve shared the kind of enchantment evident in, say, John Masefield’s The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights. But the magic that generally happens at Green Knowe, for all its dreamlike nature, feels different because the stories are based on a real life manor house.
However, the magic in A Stranger at Green Knowe isn’t the natural, primeval or ritual kind that appears elsewhere in the series but an altogether more realistic type: it’s the inexplicable bond that can develop between different species – in this case that between a refugee and a gorilla. And the way that rapport is presented here has a poignancy that makes this no ordinary story.
In the preceding volume in the Green Knowe series, The River at Green Knowe, Ping (as young refugee Hsu is called) says, “You don’t understand. They don’t send displaced persons home. They put them in camps. They might even put them in the zoo.” This is in fact the situation that occurs when a young gorilla is captured in West Africa and brought to spend the rest of his life in a cage in London Zoo, Regent’s Park.
Like Burma-born Ping, the gorilla – named Hanno after the Carthaginian general – is a displaced individual, a state that Ping empathises with when his school visits the zoo. Here the young lad, the same age as Hanno, talks to the keeper who has charge of the African primate, and he explains the psychology needed to establish an appropriate rapport with male gorillas, despite the unnatural environment Hanno survives in.
In due course Mrs Oldknow, who is aware that Ping stayed with friends at the manor the previous year, invites him to spend the summer with her at Green Knowe. Little does Ping know – indeed, little does Mrs Oldknow imagine – who will later find their way to the bamboo thicket that bounds part of the moat, garden and manor house.
While I enjoyed and admired other of the Green Knowe instalments I was most affected by this one. There is the utmost beauty in the descriptions of a family of gorillas moving through the Congolese jungle, and the terrifying moment when Hanno is wrenched away from all that he knows; there is the gentle interplay when Mrs Oldknow and Ping converse; and there is the sheer terrifying strength and terrible sublimity of the storm that presages the climactic final scenes.
But this is all by the bye, for this Green Knowe instalment heartily deserves to be recognised for its literary qualities as well as for its sensitivity in describing the impossible plights that displaced individuals may have to face just to survive. Readers, old and young alike, may thus find this a more deeply affecting story than it initially appears; I know I certainly did.
Other titles in this Green Knowe series that I’ve so far read have had a quality all of their own, even if they’ve shared the kind of enchantment evident in, say, John Masefield’s The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights. But the magic that generally happens at Green Knowe, for all its dreamlike nature, feels different because the stories are based on a real life manor house.
However, the magic in A Stranger at Green Knowe isn’t the natural, primeval or ritual kind that appears elsewhere in the series but an altogether more realistic type: it’s the inexplicable bond that can develop between different species – in this case that between a refugee and a gorilla. And the way that rapport is presented here has a poignancy that makes this no ordinary story.
In the preceding volume in the Green Knowe series, The River at Green Knowe, Ping (as young refugee Hsu is called) says, “You don’t understand. They don’t send displaced persons home. They put them in camps. They might even put them in the zoo.” This is in fact the situation that occurs when a young gorilla is captured in West Africa and brought to spend the rest of his life in a cage in London Zoo, Regent’s Park.
Like Burma-born Ping, the gorilla – named Hanno after the Carthaginian general – is a displaced individual, a state that Ping empathises with when his school visits the zoo. Here the young lad, the same age as Hanno, talks to the keeper who has charge of the African primate, and he explains the psychology needed to establish an appropriate rapport with male gorillas, despite the unnatural environment Hanno survives in.
In due course Mrs Oldknow, who is aware that Ping stayed with friends at the manor the previous year, invites him to spend the summer with her at Green Knowe. Little does Ping know – indeed, little does Mrs Oldknow imagine – who will later find their way to the bamboo thicket that bounds part of the moat, garden and manor house.
While I enjoyed and admired other of the Green Knowe instalments I was most affected by this one. There is the utmost beauty in the descriptions of a family of gorillas moving through the Congolese jungle, and the terrifying moment when Hanno is wrenched away from all that he knows; there is the gentle interplay when Mrs Oldknow and Ping converse; and there is the sheer terrifying strength and terrible sublimity of the storm that presages the climactic final scenes.
‘It’s coming,’ said Mrs Oldknow, pointing to the west again. In the core of the advancing blackness, a green eruption was spreading round a hollowness, a funnel such as one sees at the centre of eddies, but big enough for the mouth of Hades. Out of it came a roaring express of wind…Hanno was doubtless based on London Zoo’s Guy the Gorilla, but possibly also on the equally famous primate Alfred at Bristol Zoo. Ironically Hanno’s escape was later to be duplicated at Regent’s Park (though lasting less time) by lowland gorilla Kumbuka in 2016.
But this is all by the bye, for this Green Knowe instalment heartily deserves to be recognised for its literary qualities as well as for its sensitivity in describing the impossible plights that displaced individuals may have to face just to survive. Readers, old and young alike, may thus find this a more deeply affecting story than it initially appears; I know I certainly did.
May 24, 2021
Still my least favorite of the Green Knowe books on rereading it as an adult--I think it was the only one we didn't own. And still absolutely beautifully written. As one (adult) reviewer mentioned, it is thematically rich and a wonderful character study of a refugee child. Ping is smart, self-contained, very mature for his age, but still a rather dreamy, imaginative little boy. He is, to me as well as to the grandmother in the book, utterly admirable and lovable.
As to the plot, at its heart, it's the story of an improbable friendship between two outcasts. The questions this short book raises--of family and belonging, character and imagination, care for the environment, and more--are really impressive. And it does all this without a single moment of preaching.
Then why only four stars? (minor spoilers--stop here if you don't want to read them.)
I think I was a little disturbed by the sensuality of this book, and what seems like admiration for brute force at times. I could also imagine what my mother would have said: "Wild animals are dangerous! Children shouldn't think they can make friends with them." But my main problem, I think, was that in the end this story is quite tragic. It is not hopeless, but the happy ending seems to follow on too quickly from the tragedy, with no time for Ping to grieve his loss. Also, that poor cow! More human cruelty--there is a lot of human cruelty in this book, and it's disturbing.
So, for all those reasons, not my favorite of the Green Knowe books. But I can see why it won the Carnegie medal, and I do think it deserved to. It's also great that Ping's life is explored a bit and we see more of Ida! (if only through her letters, and his.)
As to the plot, at its heart, it's the story of an improbable friendship between two outcasts. The questions this short book raises--of family and belonging, character and imagination, care for the environment, and more--are really impressive. And it does all this without a single moment of preaching.
Then why only four stars? (minor spoilers--stop here if you don't want to read them.)
I think I was a little disturbed by the sensuality of this book, and what seems like admiration for brute force at times. I could also imagine what my mother would have said: "Wild animals are dangerous! Children shouldn't think they can make friends with them." But my main problem, I think, was that in the end this story is quite tragic. It is not hopeless, but the happy ending seems to follow on too quickly from the tragedy, with no time for Ping to grieve his loss. Also, that poor cow! More human cruelty--there is a lot of human cruelty in this book, and it's disturbing.
So, for all those reasons, not my favorite of the Green Knowe books. But I can see why it won the Carnegie medal, and I do think it deserved to. It's also great that Ping's life is explored a bit and we see more of Ida! (if only through her letters, and his.)
August 16, 2024
3.5 this was really beautifully written and I was gripped throughout. It was also really compassionate and so very sad. However, the lack of continuity with the pervious books really irritated me. I wanted some of the magic and mystical elements of the earlier books to have some role in this one and it was completely absent. I dont actually understand why it wasn't a separate stand alone story and why it needed to also take place in the "Green Knowe-averse" when nothing of what the author had previously set up was going to be referenced.
June 9, 2024
An incredible children's book. I was shocked by the modern views on zoos and keeping animals in captivity expressed in this story. Boston's writing is unbelievably beautiful, and her characters wonderful. This is the second Green Kowne book I've ready, i will definitely be tracking down the rest.
Can be read as a stand-alone but better if read after The River At Green Knowe.
Can be read as a stand-alone but better if read after The River At Green Knowe.
April 4, 2021
Ödev olduğu ve sınava tabii tutulduğumuz için okudum. Bana çok yavan bir öykü geldi. Bir yerleri eksik gibiydi.
May 25, 2022
Green Knowe and Tolly and Ping and Susan and Jacob are Great New Friends
Some months back I was making the rounds of a bunch of Little Free Libraries I frequent, and I find something I had never heard of before, a children’s book called A Stranger At Green Knowe.
Turns out this is part of famous series of British kids books, The Green Knowe, and have been adapted several times, and the writer is a celebrity, the manor home featured is a tourist spot, and……
I had never heard of it.
So being an intrepid soul, I got all six books from my local public library and plunged into the world of Green Knowe and Tolly and Susan and Jacob and Ping and Ida and of course, the matriarch of this all, Mrs Oldknow. All written by the late L.M. Boston, who lived in the house the stories were based on.
With book one from 1954, The Children Of Green Knowe, we have young Tolly who is sent to stay for the holidays with his great grandmother Mrs Oldknow, who lives in the middle of nowhere in the huge manor house called Green Knowe. It is a ramblely, creaky place, and untold of centuries old, with Mrs Oldknow being the latest in an unbroken line of succession, and the keeper of the truths that she loves to tell to the attentive Tolly. And these stories include the power to communicate with the ghosts who inhabit the manor. Tolly interacts with several of these ancestor ghosts, who appear as children, and even becomes friends with Linnet and Alexander, who know he is from the future. He also gets a dog, Orlando, who can also play with these echoes. This is our introduction to the magic of this place, and so many of the things it can do, and it is interesting as well. You can tell other fantasy authors have read these books.
Months later, Tolly excitedly returns to Green Knowe for Easter and finds out from Mrs Oldknow that Green Knowe has financial difficulties. This, combined with more stories from hundreds of years past, leads Tolly to meet more ghosts from a different era, Susan and Jacob, and a mystery that might save the day. What makes book two, The Chimneys Of Green Knowe, so interesting is the liberal politics of the time on display. Jacob is a slave boy that Susan’s father, who finds slavery abhorrent, gives as a companion to his young blind daughter. They become like brother and sister, which really pisses off Susan’s actual brother. It is obvious Boston is trying to make a very progressive statement for 1958, when Chimneys came out, which is laudable but still feels somewhat stilted and slightly backwards. But she is trying, which is commendable.
And this trying leads to book three, the very different The River At Green Knowe, where the cast changes entirely with no explanation. Two old scientist woman have rented out Green Knowe and they are annoying as hell, but they take in several refugee children, Ping and Ida and Oskar, so they are not totally yucky. The kids spend their time going around the river on the property and meet all sorts of wild and colourful characters, maybe too much so for this series. I wonder if this was some sort Gulliver’s Travels idea, where each person represents some political idea Boston was parodying or outright mocking. And having refugee children making the point by humanizing the other side is a great idea, and the people of the time of 1959 probably understood it better since they knew the issues.
By 1961 and book four, Boston seems to have found a good common ground for her politics and a children’s story with A Stranger At Green Knowe. This is my favourite of the series, and interestingly enough, the only one with no magic in it. A gorilla is kidnapped from its tribe in Africa and out into a zoo, where he meets Ping, who was introduced in the previous book. Ping then sets out to Green Knowe to be with Mrs Oldknow, who is back with some explanation. At the same time, the gorilla Hanno escapes the zoo and winds up in, well Green Knowe of course, where Ping finds him and takes care of his new friend. This one is deeper with strong themes of friendship and loneliness and Mrs Oldknow is just perfect at the end with everything about her.
A crossover event happened in book five in 1964 with the darker An Enemy At Green Knowe, where Mrs Oldknow hosts both Tolly AND Ping! And the two boys get along like the best of buddies, loving adventure, exchanging tales, and of course protecting Mrs Oldknow. This is good because a mysterious woman moves in nearby Green Knowe and is very pushy trying to find something at the manor. Her persistence goes into crazy territory with hypnotism, ancient magic, and plagues of animals. But Tolly and Ping defend Mrs Oldknow and Green Knowe from all these attacks, until they finally defeat the enemy. This one had me laughing because of its dark humour and inventiveness, and many cool bits, which make this one just zip along.
The sixth and final book is The Stones Of Green Knowe, released in 1976, and is a tale largely set even further in the past then any of the other Green Knowe series. Roger is a young lad whose family is nobility, and they are building the home to be known as Green Knowe. While exploring the area, he comes across ancient thrones that might have belonged to elves or leprechauns, and without realizing it, he travels forward in time multiple times and meets the same ghosts, now just people, in their time periods, and becomes fast friends. He also learns to really appreciate the home his parents are building and how it last through the ages. Probably knowing this would be the last book, Boston gives us an Avengers Endgame style scene towards the end where Roger and Tolley and Susan and Jacob and so many more get together, but just to hang out, not fight a great battle. The themes of family and history and preserving nature and honoring the past is all through Stones, and it feels like a very fitting way to cap off the series. This is not surprising since L.M. Boston was 84 when this book came out, and she wanted one last chance to preach her thoughts on family and history and the magic of it all.
This magic should be a shoo-in for adaptations, and Green Knowe has been made into a radio drama and television miniseries and a movie. I have not consumed the radio show or miniseries, but the film, called From Time To Time, I have seen. It tells the story from Chimney, with Susan and Jacob, but it is not very good, with too many changes.
Boston might not have minded the changes, since she herself made so many to her own series along the way, with casts coming and going and themes always changing and evolving. Just like she did herself. L.M. Boston was born Lucy Marie Boston, who lived from 1892 to 1990, and in 1935 she moved into a manor home which she then fixed up. Years later at age 62, and inspired by the living history of her home, she writes the first Green Knowe story, making a total of six from 1954 to 1976. It is still their, as a testament to her stories, and tours are available.
It is fascinating to dive into and experience the power of such a legendary series, one that I had never heard of.
It is like seeing hidden magic.
Scoopriches
Some months back I was making the rounds of a bunch of Little Free Libraries I frequent, and I find something I had never heard of before, a children’s book called A Stranger At Green Knowe.
Turns out this is part of famous series of British kids books, The Green Knowe, and have been adapted several times, and the writer is a celebrity, the manor home featured is a tourist spot, and……
I had never heard of it.
So being an intrepid soul, I got all six books from my local public library and plunged into the world of Green Knowe and Tolly and Susan and Jacob and Ping and Ida and of course, the matriarch of this all, Mrs Oldknow. All written by the late L.M. Boston, who lived in the house the stories were based on.
With book one from 1954, The Children Of Green Knowe, we have young Tolly who is sent to stay for the holidays with his great grandmother Mrs Oldknow, who lives in the middle of nowhere in the huge manor house called Green Knowe. It is a ramblely, creaky place, and untold of centuries old, with Mrs Oldknow being the latest in an unbroken line of succession, and the keeper of the truths that she loves to tell to the attentive Tolly. And these stories include the power to communicate with the ghosts who inhabit the manor. Tolly interacts with several of these ancestor ghosts, who appear as children, and even becomes friends with Linnet and Alexander, who know he is from the future. He also gets a dog, Orlando, who can also play with these echoes. This is our introduction to the magic of this place, and so many of the things it can do, and it is interesting as well. You can tell other fantasy authors have read these books.
Months later, Tolly excitedly returns to Green Knowe for Easter and finds out from Mrs Oldknow that Green Knowe has financial difficulties. This, combined with more stories from hundreds of years past, leads Tolly to meet more ghosts from a different era, Susan and Jacob, and a mystery that might save the day. What makes book two, The Chimneys Of Green Knowe, so interesting is the liberal politics of the time on display. Jacob is a slave boy that Susan’s father, who finds slavery abhorrent, gives as a companion to his young blind daughter. They become like brother and sister, which really pisses off Susan’s actual brother. It is obvious Boston is trying to make a very progressive statement for 1958, when Chimneys came out, which is laudable but still feels somewhat stilted and slightly backwards. But she is trying, which is commendable.
And this trying leads to book three, the very different The River At Green Knowe, where the cast changes entirely with no explanation. Two old scientist woman have rented out Green Knowe and they are annoying as hell, but they take in several refugee children, Ping and Ida and Oskar, so they are not totally yucky. The kids spend their time going around the river on the property and meet all sorts of wild and colourful characters, maybe too much so for this series. I wonder if this was some sort Gulliver’s Travels idea, where each person represents some political idea Boston was parodying or outright mocking. And having refugee children making the point by humanizing the other side is a great idea, and the people of the time of 1959 probably understood it better since they knew the issues.
By 1961 and book four, Boston seems to have found a good common ground for her politics and a children’s story with A Stranger At Green Knowe. This is my favourite of the series, and interestingly enough, the only one with no magic in it. A gorilla is kidnapped from its tribe in Africa and out into a zoo, where he meets Ping, who was introduced in the previous book. Ping then sets out to Green Knowe to be with Mrs Oldknow, who is back with some explanation. At the same time, the gorilla Hanno escapes the zoo and winds up in, well Green Knowe of course, where Ping finds him and takes care of his new friend. This one is deeper with strong themes of friendship and loneliness and Mrs Oldknow is just perfect at the end with everything about her.
A crossover event happened in book five in 1964 with the darker An Enemy At Green Knowe, where Mrs Oldknow hosts both Tolly AND Ping! And the two boys get along like the best of buddies, loving adventure, exchanging tales, and of course protecting Mrs Oldknow. This is good because a mysterious woman moves in nearby Green Knowe and is very pushy trying to find something at the manor. Her persistence goes into crazy territory with hypnotism, ancient magic, and plagues of animals. But Tolly and Ping defend Mrs Oldknow and Green Knowe from all these attacks, until they finally defeat the enemy. This one had me laughing because of its dark humour and inventiveness, and many cool bits, which make this one just zip along.
The sixth and final book is The Stones Of Green Knowe, released in 1976, and is a tale largely set even further in the past then any of the other Green Knowe series. Roger is a young lad whose family is nobility, and they are building the home to be known as Green Knowe. While exploring the area, he comes across ancient thrones that might have belonged to elves or leprechauns, and without realizing it, he travels forward in time multiple times and meets the same ghosts, now just people, in their time periods, and becomes fast friends. He also learns to really appreciate the home his parents are building and how it last through the ages. Probably knowing this would be the last book, Boston gives us an Avengers Endgame style scene towards the end where Roger and Tolley and Susan and Jacob and so many more get together, but just to hang out, not fight a great battle. The themes of family and history and preserving nature and honoring the past is all through Stones, and it feels like a very fitting way to cap off the series. This is not surprising since L.M. Boston was 84 when this book came out, and she wanted one last chance to preach her thoughts on family and history and the magic of it all.
This magic should be a shoo-in for adaptations, and Green Knowe has been made into a radio drama and television miniseries and a movie. I have not consumed the radio show or miniseries, but the film, called From Time To Time, I have seen. It tells the story from Chimney, with Susan and Jacob, but it is not very good, with too many changes.
Boston might not have minded the changes, since she herself made so many to her own series along the way, with casts coming and going and themes always changing and evolving. Just like she did herself. L.M. Boston was born Lucy Marie Boston, who lived from 1892 to 1990, and in 1935 she moved into a manor home which she then fixed up. Years later at age 62, and inspired by the living history of her home, she writes the first Green Knowe story, making a total of six from 1954 to 1976. It is still their, as a testament to her stories, and tours are available.
It is fascinating to dive into and experience the power of such a legendary series, one that I had never heard of.
It is like seeing hidden magic.
Scoopriches
September 5, 2016
I love this book. It well deserved that Carnegie medal and is relevant today when we have all those millions of refugees desperate for a home. The novel makes one think about displaced people, what they have lost and what they need. Although Lucy Boston is talking about the 1950s and not the 21st century.
Ping is a displaced boy. Returning to his jungle home in Burma from a morning's adventuring he finds it burnt, his family killed or vanished and nothing of their little community left except one little boy who hid. They find their way to a Mission and soon Ping is moved from camp to camp until he ends up in London.
Hanno is a displaced gorilla all alone in his London Zoo cage. He was snatched from his family, they were killed, and he is now a prisoner.
Meanwhile at Green Knowe Mrs Oldknow is without Tolly. His stepmother has taken him to Scotland. She welcomes the suggestion that a displaced child should come and so Ping gets freedom at Green Knowe. And Hanno makes his bid for freedom.
This is a great book for children to read, or have read to them. There is so much depth and understanding about being displaced, about cruelty and what is right. It is a complex book yet an easy read. A delightful part of the Green Knowe series and certainly a five star read.
Ping is a displaced boy. Returning to his jungle home in Burma from a morning's adventuring he finds it burnt, his family killed or vanished and nothing of their little community left except one little boy who hid. They find their way to a Mission and soon Ping is moved from camp to camp until he ends up in London.
Hanno is a displaced gorilla all alone in his London Zoo cage. He was snatched from his family, they were killed, and he is now a prisoner.
Meanwhile at Green Knowe Mrs Oldknow is without Tolly. His stepmother has taken him to Scotland. She welcomes the suggestion that a displaced child should come and so Ping gets freedom at Green Knowe. And Hanno makes his bid for freedom.
This is a great book for children to read, or have read to them. There is so much depth and understanding about being displaced, about cruelty and what is right. It is a complex book yet an easy read. A delightful part of the Green Knowe series and certainly a five star read.
December 19, 2018
Ping returns to Green Knowe in what was to be the fourth installment. I am fascinated in Boston's attraction to this character since, at this point, he is 'as' present at Tolly. I wonder whether this is Boston's 'Children of Green Knowe' for Ping.
The first part of the story takes us far away from Green Knowe into the 'jungles of Africa' in which we follow a young gorilla as he is horrifically torn from his home and family and shipped to the UK. Skip forward in time and we find Ping's visit to a zoo brings him face to face with a huge gorilla: Hanno who has been kept in captivity for most of his life.
Here then are two 'displaced' characters who find an attachment through the very fact that they have a connection in their disconnection from a sense of home until they both arrive at Green Knowe. When he escapes the zoo, Hanno finds sanctuary in its landscape and so does Ping. There is some clever work here going on by Boston with regards to identity and a sense of place and past - I can see how and why it won the Carnegie back in 1961.
The first part of the story takes us far away from Green Knowe into the 'jungles of Africa' in which we follow a young gorilla as he is horrifically torn from his home and family and shipped to the UK. Skip forward in time and we find Ping's visit to a zoo brings him face to face with a huge gorilla: Hanno who has been kept in captivity for most of his life.
Here then are two 'displaced' characters who find an attachment through the very fact that they have a connection in their disconnection from a sense of home until they both arrive at Green Knowe. When he escapes the zoo, Hanno finds sanctuary in its landscape and so does Ping. There is some clever work here going on by Boston with regards to identity and a sense of place and past - I can see how and why it won the Carnegie back in 1961.
February 4, 2012
None of the subtle development of the first two books. And I miss Tolly and Mrs. Oldknow's stories too much. There are some lovely descriptions and it starts out promisingly, especially with Boston's characterization of the forest and gorilla family, but the rest is unsatisfying. So disappointing after my hopes for the series beyond the first two books!
Some quotes I like:
'Ping had the kind of imagination that never dismisses anything as ordinary. Nothing was ordinary to him. What was always most surprising was just how extraordinary things are. It was hard to keep up with them.'
'It was a cruelly perfect morning, with some of the enchantment of night still clinging to it.'
On to An Enemy at Green Knowe. I'm hoping it will pick up with the return of Tolly...
Some quotes I like:
'Ping had the kind of imagination that never dismisses anything as ordinary. Nothing was ordinary to him. What was always most surprising was just how extraordinary things are. It was hard to keep up with them.'
'It was a cruelly perfect morning, with some of the enchantment of night still clinging to it.'
On to An Enemy at Green Knowe. I'm hoping it will pick up with the return of Tolly...
April 2, 2009
I liked the other Green Knowe books, but this is a complete departure. The writing is still good, but instead of revolving around the house and it's inhabitants from past and present, this story is about a gorilla escaping from the zoo and the ending is tragic. I could see it coming a mile away, but somehow I was compelled to keep reading even though I normally avoid books in which animals are killed. I'm sure that's because of the good writing, but I wish I had stopped. I wouldn't recommend this for children who are traumatized by the death of animals.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 28, 2020
This is actually one if my favorite Green Knowe books. The description of the gorilla's life in the rainforest is amazing. Boston really captured the feelings of being taken to a place where you don't belong and how the inner animal (or person) remains. A product of its time, the book portrays some characters in a stereotypical way. For me, the writing, descriptions and story are wonderful.
I just reread this and I still love it. It is a great companion read for The One and Only Ivan.
I just reread this and I still love it. It is a great companion read for The One and Only Ivan.
November 27, 2014
1. Oxford level2
2. 11/23=85minutes
3. A gorilla- a boy-a stranger-escape- zoo- refugee-help-
4. A) Ping lay down on his back like a dog, to show that he was only a small, friendly animal.
B) The scene was surprising me. If I was the boy, I thought I would die.
5. I was moved by the love between the gorilla and the boy. I think animals which are in the zoo are not happy. Animals should live feely.
2. 11/23=85minutes
3. A gorilla- a boy-a stranger-escape- zoo- refugee-help-
4. A) Ping lay down on his back like a dog, to show that he was only a small, friendly animal.
B) The scene was surprising me. If I was the boy, I thought I would die.
5. I was moved by the love between the gorilla and the boy. I think animals which are in the zoo are not happy. Animals should live feely.
September 18, 2021
Definitely enjoyed this one. The description of the Gorilla & his forest home are sensational. I'm still recovering from that brutal ending.
July 26, 2009
I liked it - but this may be my least favorite of the series.
April 15, 2026
Honestly what increasingly catches me about the Green Knowe books is not just the richness of Boston’s prose but also the deep compassion with which she writes. All her characters, even the ones who never meet each other, are united in being the objects of this compassion. I think so far, Stranger is the book that best exemplifies this.
Tolly’s isolation from his peers and his need to see magic which his friends and much of his family don’t understand; Mrs Oldknowe’s loneliness balmed by the children (living and dead) that visit her. The ostracism and neglect faced by Susan, the abuse and racism Jacob endures. Ping/Hsu and Oskar and Hanno, battling to be freed from dehumanising institutionalisation. Ida, struggling with herself and learning who she is and how she relates to others. The characters who go to Green Knowe and understand its magic pull, are the characters that need it most and it saves them and sanctuaries them. Even Noah is bathetic, an innocent twisted by someone else’s hate.
When that sanctuary is violated as it is in Stranger and Enemy, and to a degree in Chimneys, it is startling and shocking and unsettling. Boston never shies away from the horrors. Characters die, sometimes gruesomely, often unfairly. Even Green Knowe can’t undo all the evil of the world - it is just a bastion against it, a point in time and space where good magic is particularly powerful.
I often see comments that Boston’s language is outdated. It is. Her attitude towards the Roma travellers in Chimneys is certainly not to be condoned. But while her descriptions of Jacob and maybe Ping are of their time, the intention is very clear, and that intention is deep understanding of their personhood and internality, and compassion for the evil situation society has put them in. Her empathy for what it is like to be these characters, in small ways other writers might not even think of, is so compelling.
There was a place very like Green Knowe in my childhood, and I can’t go back there. It’s probably changed beyond recognition now. It had lakes and islands and fields and woods and a bamboo thicket and a straw hut and hidden statues and secret ways, and the house was mysterious and full of wonders to me. Once I went to Hemingford Grey only to find it wasn’t open to the public. It poured with rain and they let us in and sit in their sitting room and made us tea.
Tolly’s isolation from his peers and his need to see magic which his friends and much of his family don’t understand; Mrs Oldknowe’s loneliness balmed by the children (living and dead) that visit her. The ostracism and neglect faced by Susan, the abuse and racism Jacob endures. Ping/Hsu and Oskar and Hanno, battling to be freed from dehumanising institutionalisation. Ida, struggling with herself and learning who she is and how she relates to others. The characters who go to Green Knowe and understand its magic pull, are the characters that need it most and it saves them and sanctuaries them. Even Noah is bathetic, an innocent twisted by someone else’s hate.
When that sanctuary is violated as it is in Stranger and Enemy, and to a degree in Chimneys, it is startling and shocking and unsettling. Boston never shies away from the horrors. Characters die, sometimes gruesomely, often unfairly. Even Green Knowe can’t undo all the evil of the world - it is just a bastion against it, a point in time and space where good magic is particularly powerful.
I often see comments that Boston’s language is outdated. It is. Her attitude towards the Roma travellers in Chimneys is certainly not to be condoned. But while her descriptions of Jacob and maybe Ping are of their time, the intention is very clear, and that intention is deep understanding of their personhood and internality, and compassion for the evil situation society has put them in. Her empathy for what it is like to be these characters, in small ways other writers might not even think of, is so compelling.
There was a place very like Green Knowe in my childhood, and I can’t go back there. It’s probably changed beyond recognition now. It had lakes and islands and fields and woods and a bamboo thicket and a straw hut and hidden statues and secret ways, and the house was mysterious and full of wonders to me. Once I went to Hemingford Grey only to find it wasn’t open to the public. It poured with rain and they let us in and sit in their sitting room and made us tea.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2018
This was a childhood favorite of mine. I loved the first one of this series "The Children of Green Knowe," and this one, "A Stranger at Green Knowe." (I do know, and knew even then, that the theology of the series was not quite right, but the first book was a strange and beautiful mystery.)
"A Stranger at Green Knowe" had almost nothing to do with the earlier books in the series and could be read alone. The older ghosts of Green Knowe are not in this book, and instead, it was an animal lover's book about a gorilla, escaped from the zoo, who takes refuge in the thicket, and the friendship he formed with the boy, Ping, visiting for the summer.
I gave this book to my oldest child, an animal lover, who probably read it sometime during the later elementary school years and was not as impressed as I was. (I think, though, it was at the age where any book suggestion I made had started to lose merit, and was not the fault of the book.) I loved the descriptions of the giant and powerful gorilla, the things he did, and that strange friendship.
Now, I have just finished reading the book again with the youngest child, middle school age, who is probably a little old for the target age for this, but nevertheless, loved it. This child also noted that in this book, evolution was assumed, and that Hanno appeared as half-human at times. I think that part of the story escaped me during my childhood read. I was so entranced with the gorilla himself.
And now, years later, the story touched on the issues brought up in the real-life story of the Harambe shooting.
I've always thought that readers who enjoyed "A Stranger at Green Knowe" would also enjoy "The Summer of the Monkeys," but "The Summer ..." was funnier. "A Stranger..." was more serious, and some of it was sad.
"A Stranger at Green Knowe" had almost nothing to do with the earlier books in the series and could be read alone. The older ghosts of Green Knowe are not in this book, and instead, it was an animal lover's book about a gorilla, escaped from the zoo, who takes refuge in the thicket, and the friendship he formed with the boy, Ping, visiting for the summer.
I gave this book to my oldest child, an animal lover, who probably read it sometime during the later elementary school years and was not as impressed as I was. (I think, though, it was at the age where any book suggestion I made had started to lose merit, and was not the fault of the book.) I loved the descriptions of the giant and powerful gorilla, the things he did, and that strange friendship.
Now, I have just finished reading the book again with the youngest child, middle school age, who is probably a little old for the target age for this, but nevertheless, loved it. This child also noted that in this book, evolution was assumed, and that Hanno appeared as half-human at times. I think that part of the story escaped me during my childhood read. I was so entranced with the gorilla himself.
And now, years later, the story touched on the issues brought up in the real-life story of the Harambe shooting.
I've always thought that readers who enjoyed "A Stranger at Green Knowe" would also enjoy "The Summer of the Monkeys," but "The Summer ..." was funnier. "A Stranger..." was more serious, and some of it was sad.
August 3, 2025
I am reading my way through this series and am very conflicted about this book. The nature writing is amazing, as usual, but the story overall is quite depressing. The first few chapters are absolutely gutting, and then the ending features a horrible tragedy. There is also a bit of racial stereotyping, like in The River at Green Knowe, but again, I don't think it was conscious or ill-intentioned on the author's part; I think she was just a product of her time. In any case, Hsu (Ping) is the central character here, and Boston offers a sensitive portrayal of his life and his complex feelings. This is basically a coming-of-age novel featuring Hsu as the main protagonist. As in The River at Green Knowe, this book refers to displaced persons, and Hsu sees himself in Hanno. The two are kindred spirits, both displaced persons having to cope with being violently ripped from one's innocent childhood and then plunged into unfamiliar, lonely and unwelcoming circumstances. Unfortunately for Hanno, there is no supernatural magic in this installment, but luckily for Hsu, kindly Mrs. Oldknowe comes to love him, and Hsu has a happy development at the end of the novel despite the harrowing events of the novel. On another positive note, I was transported to the Congo by Boston's eloquently evocative writing in the beginning chapters and am in awe of how she used her imagination to make the jungle and its creatures come to life, even though there is no evidence she ever visited the region herself. The book is a testament to her incredible writing skills and her ability to imagine the world through other characters' eyes, both human and nonhuman.
May 12, 2021
"A Stranger at Green Knowe" is one in the series of books written by Lucy M. Boston in the 20th century, this one being published in 1961.
This children's novel tells the story of Hanno the gorilla and Ping, the orphan. Hanno lives with his family in Africa, but he is captured when little more than a baby and sent to a zoo in England. It is at the zoo that Ping first sees Hanno and is fascinated by him. Their relationship develops as the story continues.
Much of the plot is set at Green Knowe, where Ping goes to stay for the summer with Mrs. Oldknow. The descriptions of the house and gardens are delightful, as in all of the books in this series. The only flaw in this particular book was a short conversation which was racist and I was shocked by it. It was unexpected, but when I thought about it , I realised that the comments, inexcusable in the present day, were considered acceptable at the time of writing.
Although I was disappointed by that short part of the book, overall, "A Stranger at Green Knowe" is a beautifully written story.
This children's novel tells the story of Hanno the gorilla and Ping, the orphan. Hanno lives with his family in Africa, but he is captured when little more than a baby and sent to a zoo in England. It is at the zoo that Ping first sees Hanno and is fascinated by him. Their relationship develops as the story continues.
Much of the plot is set at Green Knowe, where Ping goes to stay for the summer with Mrs. Oldknow. The descriptions of the house and gardens are delightful, as in all of the books in this series. The only flaw in this particular book was a short conversation which was racist and I was shocked by it. It was unexpected, but when I thought about it , I realised that the comments, inexcusable in the present day, were considered acceptable at the time of writing.
Although I was disappointed by that short part of the book, overall, "A Stranger at Green Knowe" is a beautifully written story.
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