On Desert Island Discs in 1983 Rosemary Sutcliff’s fifth choice was a military lament, and bagpipes music. The bagpipes were her favourite instrument. She chose a version of “The Flowers of the Forest” played by the pipes & drums of the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards, perhaps reflecting also her love of all things military. This is the traditional lament for the fallen (people killed) in forces of the British Commonwealth.
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.
Roman Ninth Legion’s guilty secret | Rosemary Sutcliff Google Watch
Roman legionnaires, like those in Rosemary Sutcliff’s Roman novel The Eagle of the Ninth, according to The Observer newspaper:
… have been the subject of innumerable romantic books and films, including the forthcoming epic, The Eagle (of the Ninth), directed by Kevin Macdonald. But new evidence … has revealed that life for a soldier in the Roman Ninth Legion had a more mundane side. A newly excavated site near Healam Bridge fort, North Yorkshire, a military outpost used by the Ninth, has shown soldiers there had their own industrial estate nearby to provide them with clothes, pottery and other equipment. And, although this is not actually new information, they wore socks with their sandals …
Rosemary Sutcliff, Tom Lehrer, The Pope and The Vatican Rag
Tom Lehrer did not figure in Rosemary Sutcliff’s Desert Island Discs choices; but both she and my mother – they were great friends – loved the satirical songs of Tom Lehrer. And the visit of the Pope to the UK reminds me of a Lehrer song The Vatican Rag which they would undoubtedly have known from record and then also from watching in the 1970s Marty Feldman’s take on the song.Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff Desert Island Discs Record Choice Four on BBC Radio in 1983
Rosemary Sutcliff’s fourth choice of music on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs in 1983 was the song “We’ll gather lilacs in the spring (play here)” sung by Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth.
Rosemary Sutcliff’s Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio Choice Three 1983
Rosemary Sutcliff chose for her third record on Desert Island Discs with Roy Plomley in 1983 “L’Apres-midi d’une Faune” by Claude Debussy, played by The Royal Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Beecham.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 