Author: Anthony Lawton

Chair, Sussex Dolphin, family company which looks after the work of eminent children’s & historical fiction author Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92). Formerly CEO, chair & trustee of various charity, cultural & educational enterprises in UK. Sometimes a consultant.

Twitter on Rosemary Sutcliff | The Eagle of the Ninth hashtag | The Eagle film hashtag | #teotn

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We link these posts with twitter.com/rsutcliff; sporadically at the moment because, while my posts do automatically , my son’s do not yet – for reasons we are fathoming out. But Twitter users amongst you do please  use your Twitter profiles to say something about The Eagle of the Ninth, or this blog, or to retweet a recent tweet at rsutcliff, using the ‘hashtag‘  #teotn .

In anticipation of The Eagle film release I am trying to get this established as a hashtag which people will use for the book and the film too – thus restoring in a small subversive way the link with the book! So far, as a search in Twitter will show, only I have used it! And it is certainly not trending; that is for you non-Twitter users, being used so widely at a particular moment that it figures in the top ten trending topics!

An entry on rsutcliff at Twitter

The film name was changed, I understand, because market research showed that some potential film-watchers were confused by the full title (What about the eagle of the first, was that an earlier film? What ninth? Is it a golf film?). It is unwise to confuse a would-be purchaser in any business … and distributors know their business … so I resigned myself long ago to the name change. But at least #teotn for Twitter?

Rosemary Sutcliff in The Independent, April 18, 1992

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… For Rosemary Sutcliff the past is not something to be taken down and dusted. It comes out of the pages alive, and breathing now . . .”

Originally, she trained as an artist. ”My writing always involves seeing things and describing what I see,” she explains. ”It’s like a film show and I’m the one who has to crank the thing up and keep the show going . . .”

She stops, breaking off for a moment. On the low window ledge, a row of cherished teddy bears jostle for space. Beneath them, a bookcase full of formidable titles – historical research. Other reference books are piled up high on her desk.

”I do write every day, though,” she adds. ”I feel guilty if I don’t. I feel as if I haven’t really used the day unless I’ve got something down on paper to show for it.”

What she has to show is a lot of books and a lot of honours: the Carnegie Medal, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, the Hans Christian Andersen Award and many others. ”I’ve just been booted upstairs,” she says mischievously, referring to the CBE, but it’s plain that she’s chuffed as can be.

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Charles Keeping illustrates Rosemary Sutcliff book Heroes and History

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Heroes and History Charles Keeping Illustration

The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff is one of most stirring historical novels ever | The New Yorker

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Anthony Lane wrote of the film Centurion in September, and looking forward to Kevin Macdonald‘s film The Eagle from The Eagle of the Ninth that

… a number of debts are being discharged (in Centurion). The mysterious vanishing of the Ninth (now disputed by some scholars) has fed many fancies, notably Rosemary Sutcliff’s in The Eagle of the Ninth—one of the most stirring historical novels ever written for children …

Source:  “Centurion” review in The The New Yorker (Thanks to Mary Beth Dunhouse for pointing this out)

Rosemary’s Signature

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My wife  found a signed copy of Rosemary Sutcliff’s  historical novel ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ in my parent’s living room and took a photo. I think this must be the most original signature I’ve ever seen from a writer. I love how the tale turns into a dolphin.

Rosemary's signature