Author Simon Scarrow dedicates to Rosemary Sutcliff his new young adult book Gladiator: Fight for Freedom. I am alerted to this by reader and commenter on this blog ‘JB’ (5 Feb on post here). Thank you JB , for  I was unaware of the dedication – or the book – and am off to get it.

For Rosemary Sutcliffe (sic) who has inspired so many of us to love history.

Oh Dear Sutcliff spelt wrongly again, with an E. In fact JB writes:

… (it) has an interesting plot and a dedication to Rosemary Sutcliffe (sic). 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.

Sadly , publisher Puffin (according to the blurb here on Amazon, where you can get the book), even used to publish Rosemary Sutcliff, and used to make much of her in the excellent Puffin Club when she was alive! Sadly too, Simon Scarrow’s publishers and proof-reader are not as alone as they should be. See here for more mis-spelling of Rosemary Sutcliff as Rosemary Sutcliffe with an E by publishers, TV, film studios and newspapers!

But on the more positive side, I’ve asked JB (and here I ask anyone else interested) to post here a review of The Gladiator that I might use. I shall track down the full dedication, which I was unaware of until now. More important, I shall read the novel which was published in Puffin on 3rd February.

And poster Annis on historcial fiction online has pointed out to me that Rosemary Sutcliff herself used the gladiator character several times – Pandarus in Silver Branch, and most famously Phaedrus in The Mark of the Horse Lord, which he thinks is one of her most powerful novels.