Sad day today December 8th, my birthday, for until 1992 I always spoke with Rosemary Sutcliff: my good fortune and privilege was that she was my godmother (and indeed my first cousin once removed). Her own birthday is coming this week. It is Dec 14th.
Category: Autobiography & Biography
Posts on the rosemarysutcliff.com weblog about the life and thoughts of Rosemary Sutcliff, including what she wrote and said about writing and her own craft.
John Bell (d. 2008) was Rosemary Sutcliff’s first editor at OUP
Born in Hull in 19222, John Bell – one time editor at OUP, who died aged 85 in 2008 – was instrumental in helping the career of Rosemary Sutcliff, as he was for leading post-war children’s authors such as William Mayne, Philippa Pearce and Rosemary Sutcliff.
He went to Oxford University, but while he was still an undergraduate World War II started. After the war ended, he returned to Oxford and graduated in 1948. He joined the children’s book team at Oxford University Press, based in London, and was responsible for Rosemary Sutcliff’s early books.
In 1956, he transferred to the publisher’s literary team. In the mid-80s, when he retired he set up a press of his own at his home cottage at Wootton-by-Woodstock – the Backwater Press . He published several little items from or for Rosemary Sutcliff.
Sources: Yorkshire Post, February 23, 2008; The Times (London), February 18, 2008.
Joanne Harris storytime on Twitter today reminds me of Rosemary Sutcliff’s rocking-horse Troubador
Author Joanne Harris ( @Joannechocolat on Twitter) this morning tweeted a lovely story (#storytime) involving a rocking-horse. It put me in mind of Rosemary Sutcliff’s horse Troubador – made for her by a rocking-horse maker in Sussex – which prances still in our hall. And of Rosemary’s story for children, The Roundabout Horse.
The full story, extracted from the stream of Tweets this morning, follows:Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff describes a favourite dress of her mother’s
I soon had a part-time nannie, who came in by the half-day. Her name was Ivy, and she had a squint and a black Spanish hat with a red rose under the brim… I thought it was the most beautiful hat I had ever seen.
Another result of my not being ill was that my mother now had much more social life. When she came to say goodnight to me in all her glory before going out to dinner, shew would be wearing a dress, short-skirted and with its waist round her hips, of pink and gold brocade; or one which I liked even better – almost as much as Ivy’s hat – which was black, held up by a narrow black ribbon over one shoulder and a string of coral beads over the other, and flashing a broad pleat lined with coral pink in the skirt, that appeared and disappeared as she moved. I could draw that dress now.
The intriguing blog Clothes In Books quotes and reviews Rosemary Sutcliff’s Blue Remebered Hills, her autobiography about the years before becoming world-renowned historical novelist and writer of children’s literature. The blog reproduces a picture of opera singer, Lucrezia Bori (from the Dovima is Devine photostream) wearing such a dress as Rosemary describes so vividly.
Rosemary Sutcliff in List of Top 20 Living British Authors | The Times newspaper November 12th 1981
Some thirty-two years ago almost to the day the Book Marketing Council published a list of who they judged to be the 20 greatest living British authors. The Times – then (and now?) a paper of record – covered the group, but sadly mis-spelled Rosemary Sutcliff as Sutcliffe (sic) with an E. Of the twenty, only three are still alive, and sadly Rosemary is not one of them.
The full list was Beryl Bainbridge (21 Nov 1932 – 2 July 2010), John Betjeman (28 Aug 1906 – 19 May 1984), Malcolm Bradbury (7 Sept 1932 – 27 Nov 2000), Anthony Burgess (25 Feb 1917 – 22 Nov 1993), Margaret Drabble (born 5 June 1939), Lawrence Durrell (27 Feb 1912 – 7 Nov 1990), John Fowles (31 Mar 1926 – 5 Nov 2005), Leon Garfield (14 Jul 1921 – 2 Jun 1996), William Golding (19 Sept 1911 – 19 Jun 1993), Graham Greene (2 Oct 1904 – 3 Apr 1991), Ted Hughes (17 Aug 1930 – 28 Oct 1998), John Le Carre (born 19 Oct 1931), Laurie Lee (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) , Rosamund Lehmann (3 Feb 1901 – 12 March 1990), Iris Murdoch (15 Jul 1919 – 8 Feb 1999) , V.S. Naipaul (b. 17 Aug 1932), V.S Pritchett (16 Dec 1900 – 20 Mar 1997. Rosemary Sutcliffe (sic) (14 Dec 1920 – 23 Jul 1992), Laurens Van de Post (13 Dec 1906 – 16 Dec 1996), Rebecca West (21 Dec 1892 – 15 Mar 1983).
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 