Memory in A House

Lucy Boston, whose outstanding Green Knowe stories for young readers are rated among today's classics, has set down in this book and impressive record of the restoration of her Norman manor at Hemingford Grey - which is Green Knowe - and has conveyed a sense of the magic the house holds for her.
The lyrical memoir begins in 1939, with Mrs. Boston's purchase of the house (by a kind of inspired accident). Her fascinating account of the architectural reclamation of what seemed at the time "a ramshackle madness from top to bottom, dark, dispiriting, crazy," is laced with her growing passion for the house - a passion which became the inspiration for a new career of writing and a vital element in her life.