In The Eagle of the Ninth Rosemary Sutcliff writes of Romans recalling that the Caledonians
… loosed their arrows into us from behind every tuft of sodden heather, and disappeared into the mist before we could come to grips with them. And the parties sent out after them never came back.
Children’s author and historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff chose ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Vaughan Williams as her seventh record on Desert Island Discs in 1983. (Played by The Boyd Kneale Orchestra with Frederick Grinker).
The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff are two of best-selling author and illustrator Philip Reeve‘s favourite books, as recounted on his own website.
… or I could have chosen Knight’s Fee, or The Lantern Bearers, or Sun-horse, Moon-horse, or Frontier Wolf… Rosemary Sutcliff is one of my favourite children’s authors, and I doubt she ever wrote a bad book, but these were the two I liked best when I was growing up. Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff’s sixth record choice on the mythical island of BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs in 1983 was an excerpt from Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas: Polly Garter’s song. The wonderful opening lines of the whole piece – which have confounded the wordpress spell-checker:
To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea.
Source: British Television/Tise Vahimagi- Oxford University Press, 1994. © British Film Institute.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 