The Scarecrows
Robert Westall
 The story is a third-person narrative, but the point of view is entirely that of Simon Wood - his thoughts, feelings and memories, the things he sees and experiences, conversations he has, conversations he overhears. The novel opens at Simon's boarding school in the south of England, where the poisonous atmosphere of bullying and denigration has nurtured Simon's "devils", as he describes his blind rages. He first sees Joe Moreton there, when the man has given Simon's mother a lift to an event at the school. Simon loathes him at first sight and regards him as a "yob", unimpressed by his fame as an artist. At an art gallery the boy overhears a conversation making clear that Joe and his mother are dating, which enrages Simon. When mother tells him she intends to marry Joe, he vainly begs her not to, and then refuses to attend the wedding. But he must finally join his mother, his sister, and Joe at their new home in Cheshire. There both his mother's happiness and his sister's adoration of Joe incense him, for he regards them as betraying his father's memory. A neighboring unused water mill, separated from the house by a turnip field, provides a refuge, but it harbours a sinister secret. During the war, the miller was murdered by his wife and her lover. By his own attitude and actions, Simon becomes increasingly isolated. When he is driven to call on his father's spirit for support, it appears that the call is intercepted by the spirits at the mill, which manifest as scarecrows and imperceptibly advance across the turnip field to threaten the family. Simon's friend Tris la Chard comes to stay, and helps Simon to face up to reality and defeat the spirits.