Lucy Boston, 97; Children’s Author

Children’s author Lucy Boston, who didn’t begin writing until she was 60, has died at age 97 at the 12th-Century manor that was the setting and inspiration for her books.

Mrs. Boston, whose best-known work was “The Children of Green Knowe,” suffered a stroke several weeks ago and died Friday, her son Peter Boston said Sunday. He was the illustrator of most of her books.

Many of Mrs. Boston’s 18 books were translated into Japanese, Swedish, German and Afrikaans. “The Children of Green Knowe” was adapted into a serial for British Broadcasting Corp. television in 1984 while most of her tales were used regularly on the BBC’s story-reading hour.

Mrs. Boston wrote a series of Green Knowe books as well as “The Castle of Yew,” “The Sea Egg,” “Nothing Said,” “The Guardians of the House” and “The Fossil Snake.”

In 1960, she was awarded the Carnegie Medal for children’s books.

In 1938 Mrs. Boston bought the Manor House, one of the oldest inhabited houses in England, and restored it. It represented a way of life to her and in her works became “Green Knowe,” an old, haunted house.

Much of the moated house, with gardens stretching to the nearby River Ouse, was built from 1120 to 1150. It is at Hemingford Grey in Huntingdonshire, 60 miles north of London.