The Borrowers

The Borrowers is a series of children’s fantasy novels by English author Mary Norton. The novels are about tiny people who live in people’s homes and “borrow” things to survive while keeping their existence unknown: the eponymous Borrowers. The central characters of the novels are a borrower family surnamed Clock: Pod, Homily and their spirited teenage daughter, Arrietty.

Detailed bibliography



 * 1) The Borrowers (first published in 1952 by J. M. Dent)
 * 2) The Borrowers Afield (first published in 1955 by J. M. Dent)
 * 3) The Borrowers Afloat (first published in 1959 by J. M. Dent)
 * 4) The Borrowers Aloft (first published in 1961 by J. M. Dent)
 * 5) The Borrowers Avenged (first published in 1982 by Viking Kestrel)
 * Poor Stainless (a short story from Homily’s childhood, first published in 1966 by J. M. Dent)

Series introduction
Beginning with The Borrowers and developed further in the book's sequels, interaction between the minuscule Borrowers and the “human beans” (a borrower mispronunciation of “human beings”) is seen as a primary cause of trouble, irrespective of the sometimes kind, sometimes selfish motives of the humans. Arrietty, the main character of the series, often begins relationships with Big People that have chaotic effects on the lives of herself and her family, causing her parents to react with fear and worry. As a result of Arrietty’s curiosity and friendships with Big People, her family is forced to move their home several times from one place to another, making their lives more adventurous than the average borrower would prefer. After escaping from their home under the kitchen floorboards of an old English manor they finally settle down in the home of a caretaker on the grounds of an old church.

Along the way, they meet a cast of colourful characters – other borrowers including a young man around Arriety’s age who lives outdoors and whose only memory of his family is the descriptive phrase, “Dreadful Spiller”, which he uses as a name (introduced in The Borrowers Afield), the Harpsichord family who are relatives of the Clock family, Peregrine "Peagreen" Overmantel and also Big People such as the Boy, Mild Eye, Tom Goodenough, the gardener’s son and Miss Menzies, a sweet but overly helpful woman

Illustrations
Beside Mary Norton’s text, the original books were also illustrated. In the UK, Diana Stanley took care of most of them and Pauline Baynes did the last one, while in the US, the artists were Beth and Joe Krush on all books.

Other illustrators have since worked on The Borrowers.