Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
Author Mary Norton was raised in a Georgian manor house in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire… hey wait, that sounds familiar. Sure enough, this locale is written into The Borrowers. Remember that clock winder? He has to come all the way from Leighton Buzzard to service the clock above the borrowers' home. (Source.)
For all you four-eyed friends out there, there's hope. Mary Norton got her inspiration for The Borrowers because she couldn't see too well as a child, and as a result became a "gazer into banks and hedgerows . . . a rapt investigator of shallow pools," where she would imagine little creatures to live. (Source.)
From 1973 right up until the present, The Borrowers has been made into tons of TV series, TV movies, big-screen movies, and Japanese anime. That's almost 40 years on screen.