Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1953 historical novel and children’s book Simon – the subject of a comment by Anne in an earlier post – is a story about competing loyalties in the midst of a civil war. The Washington Post and Times Herald on April 4th, 1954 said:
It is a colourful story … (and) Miss Sutcliff’s interest in character makes even the minor characters interesting … she is adept too at communicating a sense of the Devon countryside. Read More »
Children’s writer and historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff and Elizabeth Goudge were linked, ‘Anne’ comments in response to an earlier post:
Interestingly, Sutcliff and Goudge corresponded with each other, and Goudge wrote publicity comments to go with both Sword at Sunset and Rider on a White Horse.
To me Rider of the White Horse goes hand-in-hand with Elizabeth Goudge’s ‘White Witch’, another novel of the English Civil War which is also magically evocative. Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff said about the historical accuracy of her children’s book Simon written early in her career in 1953, set in the English Civil War of the 17th century:
“Most history books deal with the final campaign of the civil war in a single paragraph, and the Battle of Torrington they seldom mention at all. In this story I have tried to show what that final campaign in the west was like, and to re-fight the battles fought over my own countryside. Most of the people I’ve written about really lived; Torrington Church really did blow up, with 200 Royalist prisoners and their Parliamentary Guard inside, and no one has ever known how it happened, though Chaplain Joshua Sprigg left it on record that the deed was done by ‘one Watts, a desperate villain’ “.
Lovely, lovely book; one of my favourite books ever. It’s about the English Civil War, and manages to convey information about and the perspective of, both sides pretty fairly, which is rare in books on the subject. Although Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 