Rosemary Sutcliff wrote a monograph about the British writer of the Just So stories, Rudyard Kipling, who was a major influence on her fiction writing for children, young adults and adults. She wrote in the introduction to the book that she had loved Kipling ever since she could remember.
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.
Children’s writer Rosemary Sutcliff on Kipling | Sutcliff Discovery of the Day
Rosemary Sutcliff always acknowledged a debt to and love for Rudyard Kipling. She wrote a small book, a monograph, about him. I have just discovered this article in the journal of the Kipling Society, The Kipling Journal, in 1965. She wrote:
” … other people write about things from the outside in, but Kipling writes about them from the inside out.”
Rosemary Sutcliff believed in re-incarnation
Rosemary Sutcliff was a children’s writer and historical novelist who believed in re-incarnation. She told me , as she did other people, that she once found herself telling someone who suggested that perhaps Roman soldiering would be her fate in a future life that “she had already had enough of soldiering”. She believed in it for animals too, including her own. Hence her book A Little Dog Like You (1987), in which a woman whose beloved small dog has died finds him again when he is reborn in the body of a new puppy.
Rosemary Sutcliff in Top 20 living British authors | The Times in 1980s
Trawling the internet, I am reminded that in 1981 British publishers announced their choices for the top 20 (then) living British writers. Rosemary Sutcliff was among them. At the time, Frank Delaney, chairman of the selectors, said:
In a storehouse so rich, there are far more than 20 good , even great, writers. What we have tried to do is select authors whose record of publication has provided them with critical acclaim and public recognition.
She ‘beat’ such distinguished people who were not in the top 20 as Robert Graves (the poet and novelist), J.B. Priestley (who had a 60-year literary career), Alan Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis, Muriel Spark, Dick Francis and Daphne du Maurier. Lord Snowdon took a picture which for copyright reasons I am sure I should not post, although I have it somewhere.
Rosemary Sutcliff obituary (1920-1992) | The Independent newspaper reviews Rosemary Sutcliff life and work
Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels ‘set a new standard for children’s historical fiction because of their insight, passion and commitment’ said The Independent in its obituary in 1992 about the famous chidren’s author. Mind you, she wrote for adults too and some books were marketed as adult historical fiction (like Sword at Sunset which topped the bestseller lists).Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 