Customer Reviews

The guardians of the house

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Lucy Boston's love of old homes and mysterious gardens have never been more obvious than in "Guardians of the House". The author who is most famous for the "Green Knowe" series lived during her lifetime in an ancient manor at Hemingford Grey, and devoted much of her life in restoring the house and grounds, which is now open for visitors. In this case, it is the house rather than the gardens that recieves the most attention, and though I have never been to Boston's home myself, the blurb tells me that several of the faces within the book are real items within the manor.

Like almost all her books, Boston begins with the usual senario - a young boy (in this case Tom) is drawn to an old house lived in by an elderly woman. When he is sure she has left, he creeps in to explore (the moral implications of this aren't touched on, but the dream-like narrative compensates for this trespassing). Surrounded by disembodied voices and strange masks, Tom embarks on a series of strange adventures with several of the faces dotted around the house: a donkey's head made of straw, a Roman triton's bust, an Eastern goddess idol, and an Indian face. Each face magically transports him to another place and time, whether it be a jungle, an undersea city, or a temple in the desert, all of which are both magical and dangerous, till finally he is overly frightened, and leaves the house.

Needless to say, it is a rather bizarre book, that comes across almost as a writing exercise or prose-poetry reading that was accidently published. Whatever the case, it is clearly a pet-project of Boston's, what with the features of her own house being brought to the page. Yet despite this there is something oddly fascinating about it. There is not much of a story, and Tom is hardly a well-developed character, but Boston's beautiful writing style makes this a hypnotic read - but perhaps not for children. Several of the adventures contain rather frightening imagery, including a tiger attacking a man, and a disembodied mackintosh chasing Tom - not to mention the fact that the story does not really have a beginning, middle or end: I predict children would be quite baffled at this.

Instead, if you are an adult fan of Boston or a collector, then "The Guardians of the House" might interest you. I believe that it is the book that was closet to Boston's heart given the fact that artefacts from her own home feature in the story, and I don't find it hard to imagine that the entire book was a daydream of hers surrounding her house-hold faces and what they would do to protect her house if a Tom *did* actually intrude. Reading "Guardians" in that way, is a bit like wandering into someone else's dream: it's surreal, it's mysterious, it's oddly spiritual, and it's ultimately ingrossing. If you've ever fancied the idea of visiting Boston's home based on your readings of the "Green Knowe" books, then this is the book that will make up your mind.

By the way, Peter Boston (Lucy's son) also illustrates "Guardians", and I think they're the best I've seen (perhaps because he had the real faces to sketch?)