Kirkus Reviews QR Code
RIDER ON A WHITE HORSE by Rosemary Sutcliff

RIDER ON A WHITE HORSE

by Rosemary Sutcliff

Pub Date: Oct. 16th, 1959
ISBN: 9997409175
Publisher: Coward-McCann

Sir Thomas Fairfax is the rider and White Surrey is the horse and this is the story of their three years of war on the Parliamentarian side against the Royalists in the West Riding country. The landscape is made up of the unending battles and the countryside, and against it the marriage of Anne and Tom matures in their sorrows, their meetings and partings. After the death of their younger daughter, Anne insists on traveling with Tom, against and in besieged towns, with and without their young daughter, Moll. When taken prisoner, Anne is the means of changing Royalist orders for a complete sack, to that of merciful surrender for a town that is captured. At last she must stay at home when Cromwell urges and struggles for a united army, to know that Tom can never leave the cause in which he has fought so steadfastly. The course of the 17th century civil war is followed in meticulous detail as are the shifts in contemporary thought and feeling, and the historical characters are each given their share of vitality; but it is in the little scenes framing the central characters that a warmth and sentiment is strongest. For the serious reader of English historical fiction, this should be most satisfying and rewarding.