The Borrowers

The Borrowers is a novel by Mary Norton about tiny people who "borrow" things from normal humans and keep their existence unknown. Published in 1952, it won the Carnegie Medal for that year.

It was followed by a series of sequels recounting the further adventures of the Clock family.

• The Borrowers Afield (1955),
• The Borrowers Afloat (1959),
• The Borrowers Aloft (1961),
• Poor Stainless: A New Story About the Borrowers (1971),
• The Borrowers Avenged (1982), which includes Poor Stainless.

Adaptations

There have been three distinct screen adaptations of the book.

• The first was an American made-for-TV movie, shot on videotape to facilitate the necessary special effects.

• The second was a BBC television series starring Ian Holm.

• The third was a 1998 theatrical movie starring John Goodman as an evil lawyer, Jim Broadbent as the head of the Borrowers family and Celia Imrie as his wife, set in a fictional country that contains elements of Britain, France and America. This film seems to reverse the Hollywood cliche of having a British villain, as it features an all British cast with an American actor as villain. Two of the movie's other actors, Tom Felton and Mark Williams, went on to appear in the Harry Potter films.