Rosemary Sutcliff’s worldwide success as an author of historical fiction and children’s literature required readers and a publishing industry! Happily the presence of ‘help desks’ in the early Medieval days of books and reading, when these represented new technologies that ‘customers’ found confusing and difficult to use, led over the centuries to the fully fledged book technologies that meant people could and do enjoy Rosemary Sutcliff’s books.
Absolutely wonderful!
And totally unrelated – I’ve just been reading a book about hermits called Pelican in the Wilderness, by Isabel Colegate, and she mentions Fairfax withdrawing to his estate of Nun Appleton, and having Andrew Marvell the poet staying with him, after he resigned his generalship of the army.
What a pity Rosemary Sutcliff never continued the story of The Rider on the White Horse!
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