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.

Rosemary Sutcliff “just below Tolkien” says author K V Johansen

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Of historical novelist and children’s writer Rosemary Sutcliff, Canadian K V Johansen (author of The Warlocks of Talverdin books) has posted (via the You Write! tab):

You asked for mentions of other material on Sutcliff. I talked about her a bit in the chapter on retellings of the Arthurian and Robin Hood legends in my book on the history of children’s fantasy literature, Quests and Kingdoms (2005). Managed to sneak in some mention of her Romans, too, via The Lantern Bearers and Sword at Sunset. I think Rosemary Sutcliff is up there just below Tolkien in the “what shaped my deepest imagination and why I’m a writer writing the kinds of things I write” list.

Of this website for Rosemary Sutcliff she kindly said Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff writes about being a disabled person and author

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff , internationally-acclaimed writer of historical novels and books for children, wrote thirty years ago about living with disabilities for the ‘Emotions in Focus’ exhibition of erotic art by disabled people which was curated to celebrate The International Year of Disabled People in 1981, at  The Roundhouse, London (UK).

Career-wise, I’m one of the lucky ones. My job, as a writer of books, is one of the few in which physical disability presents hardly any problems. I would claim that it presents no problems at all but my kind of book needs research, and research is more difficult for a disabled person. I am less able to see for myself or dig priceless information out of deeply hidden archives. I have to rely more on other people’s help and on libraries. And even libraries can present problems – like one which shall be nameless – which is very proud of its ramp to its entrance but keeps its entire reference department upstairs, with, of course, no lift. Still, I am one of the lucky ones – not for me the heart-breaking business of convincing employers that I am employable. I work at home and if I produce a book which the publisher considers worth publishing, it gets published.

But there are drawbacks. Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff historical novelist and children’s writer interviewed in The Independent newspaper in 1992

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Rosemary Sutcliff featured at length in an interview by Giselle Green on the weekend books page of The Independent newspaper  in April 1992 (April 18, page 26 of weekend section).

”It was in the Great fire-hall on Barra, in the Outer Hebrides and a terrible storm was brewing up outside. They had just pulled the wicker-work shutters across the membrane of the windows in case the storm blew its way in, but the draughts were still getting in everywhere. You could hear the booming of the waves pitching against the beach . . . the hangings and skins of sailcloths with dragons painted on them billowed up all over the place as if they would come to life. . .”

Rosemary Sutcliff folds her hands over her chest: ”Then my supper arrived. I looked up into a clear, calm evening, and my first thought was – ‘Thank heavens that awful wind’s gone!’ ”

A historical novelist for both children and adults, with 53 books to her credit, it is easy to see how, as one reviewer said: ”For Rosemary Sutcliff the past is not something to be taken down and dusted. It comes out of the pages alive, and breathing now . . .”  Read More »

Blogger Jeff appreciates Rosemary Sutcliff’s evocative writing

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff attracts several appreciative posts on Jeff’s Secondat blog. He recently posted on the You Write tab on this blog about ” one of the many facets of her writing that appeals to me”. (Dear Reader – do please post there your responses to and stories about Rosemary).

She’s such a great story-teller that I sometimes find myself racing through her descriptions of the natural environment to get to the next development of plot. I think she put some of her best descriptive images closest to unfolding plot climaxes. Your eye catches the fine phrases and, if you’re like me, this puts you in a quandary, whether to move swiftly on or linger over the marvelous images. Here are some of the phrases I’ve most enjoyed (usually on my second or third reading of the books in which they occur):

— a brief wing of sunlight brushed along the flank of the little glen

— a dark soughing of the wind across the dead heather  Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff | A real person, author Chris Priestly realises

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff’s name came up when Philippa Dickinson, the managing director of Random House Children’s Books, was having a conversation in a bar which included Chris Priestly, who is an author himself. Before she had to leave, writes Chris:

Philippa began a sentence ‘I remember Rosemary telling me…’. It seems silly to say it, given that I’m a writer myself, but I’d sort of forgotten Rosemary Sutcliff was a real person that someone could remember talking to. I was deeply impressed.

Source: Chris Priestley.