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- Rosemary Sutcliff, eminent author of children’s literature, prided herself on not writing down for children
- Rosemary Sutcliff, historical novelist and writer for children, had a profound sense of the British landscape and its past | Philip Reeve
- Novelist Tony Bradman writes about being inspired by internationally-acclaimed historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff
- Rosemary Sutcliff on liking children, adults or dogs more
- Internationally acclaimed historical novelist and writer for children, Rosemary Sutcliff, could not read when nine years old
rosemary sutcliff tagsAncient Greece Archaeology Arthurian authors awards books C. Walter Hodges Carnegie Medal Charles Keeping children's books children's literature Dark & Middle Ages disability dogs education film garden health historical fiction History King Arthur music nature quotes Romans translation Vikings writers writing young adult fiction
- @rosschawkins & broadcasters position will, on evidence of 2010, help energise and inform 1st-time voters http://t.co/ZBsRJMQlhv | 4 hours ago
- RT @MargretGeraghty: Rosemary Sutcliff writes about being a disabled writer—a doubly lonely life wp.me/p42Yg-2X3 via @rsutcliff | 4 hours ago
- Yes @rosschawkins ”almost identical”, but Bennett more lyrical. Mind you, is “the many” same as “all”?! Still, the broad sentiment correct. | 4 hours ago
- .@philipreeve1 once wrote of “@rsutcliff historical novels…filled with a profound sense of of the British landscape” http://t.co/9VF2P3FkVV | 4 hours ago
- No @newwritingsouth @Rhian_Ivory. Writing was “doubly lonely” for disabled eminent ( SE) writer Rosemary Sutcliff rosemarysutcliff.com/2014/10/15/ros… | 4 hours ago
- RT @angus_donald: I'm celebrating World Book Day by having a lie-in and reading Rosemary Sutcliff's Eagle of the Ninth | 4 hours ago
- Rosemary Sutcliff, eminent author of children’s literature, prided herself on not writing down for children wp.me/p42Yg-2Z2 | 8 hours ago
- “Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels…filled with a profound sense of of the British landscape”—Philip Reeve | e.g. http://t.co/HgDfNZvmF3 | 8 hours ago
rosemary sutcliff’s signature
the guardian, in praise of rosemary sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 children's classic The Eagle of the Ninth (still in print more than 50 years on) is the first of a series of novels in which Sutcliff, who died in 1992, explored the cultural borderlands between the Roman and the British worlds – "a place where two worlds met without mingling" as she describes the British town to which Marcus, the novel's central character, is posted.
Marcus is a typical Sutcliff hero, a dutiful Roman who is increasingly drawn to the British world of "other scents and sights and sounds; pale and changeful northern skies and the green plover calling". This existential cultural conflict gets even stronger in later books like The Lantern Bearers and Dawn Wind, set after the fall of Rome, and has modern resonance. But Sutcliff was not just a one-trick writer.
The range of her novels spans from the Bronze Age and Norman England to the Napoleonic wars. Two of her best, The Rider of the White Horse and Simon, are set in the 17th century and are marked by Sutcliff's unusually sympathetic (for English historical novelists of her era) treatment of Cromwell and the parliamentary cause. Sutcliff's finest books find liberal-minded members of elites wrestling with uncomfortable epochal changes. From Marcus Aquila to Simon Carey, one senses, they might even have been Guardian readers.