Rosemary Sutcliff once said of her writing:
“The themes of my children’s books are mostly quite adult, and in fact the difference between writing for children and for adults is, to me at any rate, only a quite small gear change.”
Source: Townsend, John Rowe. 1971. A Sense of Story. London: Longman p. 201
The knight Bedevere, played by James Traherne in the RSC production of Morte D’Arthur, returns Arthur’s sword Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake after his final battle. He carries Arthur onto the barge that sails to Avalon after he is mortally wounded by Mordred. The RSC note that Bedevere appears in Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1963 best-selling Arthurian novel Sword at Sunset as Guenever’s lover, rather than Launcelot.
Charlotte thinks that Rosemary Sutcliff’s children’s historical novel The Queen Elizabeth Story is “a lovely book, full of thick description and vivid character and history made real. And its magic is aided and abetted by the wonderful drawings of C. Walter Hodges“, her “favourite children’s book illustrator.” Charlotte was writing a review on the Charlotte’s Library blog.
What really made this book for me, when I was young, was Adam. He was my first book love ( I was nine), and I am awfully fond of him still. He is lame, but so gallant and kind that Perdita doesn’t notice it…and in a scene I especially love, he invites a sad and lonely Perdita to a private banquet at the manor, where he makes the lords and ladies of a tapestry come alive for her in a glorious magical wonderful-ness.
This blog and website for my godmother and cousin Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992), children’s writer and author for adults, historical novelist, original writer of the book The Eagle of the Ninth (and coming film or movie now called ‘The Eagle’) and more than fifty other books, has had a latest ‘new visitor’ from Belarus, the 105th country of origin according to the counter over in the right sidebar (at the bottom – scroll down). Here is the flag ….
Rosemary Sutcliff used kennings, some from the Anglo-Saxon, some probably invented herself. These are word combinations used instead of ordinary nouns in Old Norse and later Icelandic poetry.Out in the world of web discussions, one commenter remembers ‘whale-road’ was one for the sea, and ‘wave-rider’ for a ship. Do Sutcliff fans who read this blog recall others?
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 