Charles Keeping cover for Rosemary Sutcliff historical novel Dawn Wind

illustration by Charles Keeping

Of the 1961 cover  of Rosemary Sutcliff’s ‘classic’ historical novel Dawn Wind Katherine Langrish writes: ” It looks more modern, perhaps because Charles Keeping, who illustrated nearly all her books, was such a strong and innovative artist. In fact, the art here is almost more important than the title, and the author’s own name all but fades into the dark shadows at the children’s feet. Today we’d be wailing for gilt or silver foil to ‘lift’ the cover. And yet I’d hate to see this changed. You could recognise ‘a Rosemary Sutcliff’ at a glance, precisely because Keeping’s style twinned with her historical genius made such a fantastic pairing.” , the thoughts of  Katherine Langrish was writing about  ‘what’s in-or on-a cover’, in An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, the self-styled ‘ramblings of a few scattered authors’.

Illustrator of Rosemary Sutcliff historical fiction
Charles Keeping

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