Lucy Maria Boston was a British author noted for her longevity; she did not have her first book published until she was over 60. She is best known for her Green Knowe books, inspired by her home The Manor, one of the oldest permanently inhabited houses in Britain (her books were illustrated by her son Peter Boston (1918- 1999). Born Lucy Wood in Southport, Lancashire, and educated at a girls' boarding school on the Sussex coast, she married Harold Boston in 1917, and moved to The Manor in the late 1930s, shortly after separating from her husband.

She also had a deep love of classical music, and she made a lot of patchwork, as well as being a keen gardener well into her nineties.