L. M. Boston

An English girl, a Polish refugee, and a displaced boy from the Orient explore an island-strewn river flowing past the ancient manor house of Green Knowe.

While eagerly following each stage of the new stone manor house his father is building to replace their old wooden Saxon hall, a young boy, part Saxon and part Norman, becomes involved with ancient magic that carries him through time.

The inhabitants of Green Knowe become involved with black magic when a modern-day witch attempts to find books of witchcraft supposedly hidden in the old house by a mad seventeenth-century alchemist.