Nominations were announced today for the Carnegie Medal for 2014. The Chartered institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) claims (correctly!) that it is one of the “most prestigious prizes in writing … for children”, but regretfully I have read none of this year’s nominees – yet! The medal is awarded annually by children’s librarians for an outstanding book for children and young people. The press release from CILIP recalls that “previous winners of the medal include Sally Gardener, Patrick Ness, Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman and C.S. Lewis”.
Rosemary Sutcliff was awarded the medal in 1957 for her historical novel The Lantern Bearers. She was short-listed again in 1972 for Tristan and Iseult .
- More on Rosemary Sutcliff’s award-winning achievements on this blog and website for Rosemary Sutcliff
- More on The Lantern Bearers on this blog and website for Rosemary Sutcliff
- More on Tristan and Iseult on this blog and website for Rosemary Sutcliff
Source: The CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards – Press Release
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
Cool, thanks for getting back to me on this. I guess I was just concerned … you know the feeling out there … the only novels that get real respect are these psychological realism novels about some college professor in a small town who has an affair. And yet, a re-telling of Cleopatra is somehow considered trivial.
I think the main problem is that many historical fiction novelists have a hard time wearing in the history part (the exposition), and it some times bring the story to a halt. And the line-for-line prose is not as moving, and historical novelists don’t tend to luxuriate on the sentence … they’re more interested in moving on with the plot.
However, I have not found this to be the case with Rosemary so far. Even though I saw the movie The Eagle, I’m reading the book for the first time, and she does feel like a very careful writer and that first scene is beautifully etched.
DP
LikeLike
Much of it sold and is still selling (commercial?); her main novels and re-tellings were literary as well as highly readable. So both – in some senses of the words at least! The Man Booker – yes!
LikeLike
Anthony, would you consider Rosemary’s works “commercial fiction,” or “literary fiction?”
Meaning, could some of her work possibly have won the Man Booker Prize for instance?
LikeLike