For award-winning, internationally-acclaimed author Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92). By Anthony Lawton: godson, cousin & literary executor. Rosemary Sutcliff wrote historical fiction, children's literature and books, films, TV & radio, including The Eagle of the Ninth, Sword at Sunset, Song for a Dark Queen, The Mark of the Horse Lord, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, Dawn Wind, Blue Remembered Hills.
Before Rosemary Sutcliff became I writer, she was an artist. She made beautiful miniatures. One of her set of miniatures is a stunning nativity scene. As Rosemary was my dad’s Godmother and cousin, we inherited some of her possessions when she died in 1992. The nativity scene was one of those possessions and every christmas we put it out next to the christmas tree in the front hall of our family home in Leicester. Here are some photographs my wife took this christmas of this beautiful piece of art.
Rosemary Sutcliff relished the imagination and creativity of children, as well as readers’ responses to her novels. Writing in Books for Keeps, Brian Alderson, former Children’s Books Editor of The Times, recalled an anecdote which dates from some time after the publication of The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. Rosemary recounted to a ‘bevy of librarians’:
‘That’s not a sand-castle,’ said the busy child on the beach, ‘I’m building a temple to Mithras’!
He commented that
In all probability the temple-builder’s enthusiasm for the work came from hearing its famed serialisation on ‘Children’s Hour’ but (perhaps unlike television serials) the wireless version sent listeners straight back to the book to get the author’s full-dress narrative to go with the spoken one.
Blue Remembered Hills is Rosemary Sutcliff’s autobiography, covering the period until she was first published. Avid reader Lyn commented on her blog earlier this year:
It’s a beautifully written story of a lonely child crippled by juvenile arthritis who nevertheless didn’t feel she had had a deprived life. The tone of the book is one of gratitude for life’s blessings & joy at the natural world, her friends, her dogs & her love for her parents.
A customer and Amazon reviewer – intriguingly at one of the Universities in the town where I write this – wrote over ten years ago: Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 