The Eagle of the Ninth is by Rosemary Sutcliff (sic). Too many people spell the name of author of historical fiction and children’s books Rosemary Sutcliff (correct) wrongly – with an E, as in ‘Rosemary Sutcliffe’ (incorrect). This is particularly surprising and rather more disappointing when it is someone whose Twitter biography describes them as ‘Head of Digital’ at a prestigious British publisher’s Education Department; especially when the publisher has been one of Rosemary’s publishers for more than 50 years! However, if their typing is anywhere near as bad as my own, it might be fairer for me to think of this as a typing error rather than a spelling error. In any event I tweeted them!
This spelling problem will only increase with material about the film from The Eagle of the Ninth, The Eagle. I catch some of the errors on the web with a Google Alert for “Rosemary Sutcliffe”. In fact, I also found from the alert that the funders and production company for the film The Eagle, Focus Features, got this wrong a few weeks ago. Now I check, they have still not put it right.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
Five days ago Amazon delivered Simon Scarrow’s new book Gladiator: Fight for Freedom, to me. It is aimed at young adults and has an interesting plot and a dedication to Rosemary Sutcliffe.
Mr Scarrow speaks highly of Miss Sutcliff and whilst I do not blame him for the typo, I do wonder who does his proof reading. It would be the work of a moment to check the spelling of Miss Sutcliff’s surname.
JB 5 February 2011
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Well spotted, thank you and Oh dear! But yes, SImon Scarrow has always spoken well, indeed highly, or Rosemary and her inspiration. I shall read the introduction (and the book).
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