The English Civil War and Simon

I read a good number of Rosemary Sutcliff's books when I was a young person, but I never heard of her book Simon until fairly recently. It's about a boy of that name, who becomes a young man in the years leading up to the English Civil War, then goes to fight for Parliament, while his best friend fights for the king.

Like all of Sutcliff's work, place is a major character in the book. Her love of southern England and ability to describe its beauty is one of my favorite parts of reading her work.

In contrast, parts of the book are too simplified in their military history, listing off place names and troop movements as if they are meaningful in themselves. I was constantly referring to maps of Devon, Essex, and Sussex, and even then it didn't mean a lot to an American who's never been in those parts of the country. To a Brit who grew up with at least some background in the history, I'm sure it would make more sense. It's also assumed that the reader knows who the major leaders of each side are, including their nicknames. The book was published in 1953, and that may have been true of young English readers at the time, but it's not true of an American now, and probably not then either.

If you're an American, how much did you learn about the English Civil War in school? Personally, I learned most of what I know about it from other historical fiction, like Barbara Willard's Harrow and Harvest. Now I know a lot more from Rosemary Sutcliff (and Google Maps).

Here are some other parts I particularly liked.

I recently read a post on Medievalists.net about how medieval literature never talked about what happened to the bodies left after battles. Well, Sutcliff did. After the battle of Naseby, which was won by Parliament,

Behind them, in the wide upland valley that had so lately been a battle-field, the prisoners were being rounded up... It was  not yet noon of a day that was still lovely, and the June sun shone warmly, gently, on the dead of two English armies, who lay tumbled uncouthly among the thyme and the little white honey-clover of the downland turf, here at the heart of England (page 80).

The story also included many mentions to how the armies were (or weren't) provisioned, and how they took what they needed from their fellow countrymen along the way, with or without payment. For instance, when Simon returns to his mother and sister at his family's farm, he finds that the king's troops had cut down the cider apple trees in their orchard for firewood, even though the trees were too green to burn except on the hottest fires. After Simon finds out about this and goes to put one of the apple logs onto their evening fire,

He looked at the log in his hand, with its delicate tracery of grey-green lichen; thinking of the autumn cider-making, and the beauty of white blossom in the springtime, that would not come again. It seemed so wanton, so stupid. He put the log gently on the fire, and watched it flower for the last time into petals of saffron flame that scented all the room with aromatic sweetness (page 155).

One thing I didn't like about the book was its cover. Simon was one of Sutcliff's earliest books, and to me the cover (by William Stobbs) seems like an afterthought, with its crudely rendered figures isolated on a solid background. It makes the book look like a bad early reader instead of a novel.