Category: Criticism, Reviews, Research, Awards

Posts on rosemarysutcliff.com, Rosemary Sutcliff’s official website, about Literary Criticism, Reviews and Research about her; and about national and international Awards she received.

Unwelcome news: Amanda Craig, knowledgeable Rosemary Sutcliff critic, fired by Times | Specialist children’s book reviewer role abolished

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Writer, journalist, and very knowledgeable Rosemary Sutcliff critic Amanda Craig has lost her job as children’s book reviewer at the Times newspaper. The role is to be brought “in-house”.

“Children’s literature is one of Britain’s greatest national treasures and it’s not something you can hope to cover well in-house,” she told The Bookseller for their article covering her firing.

Around the time of the release of the film The Eagle (of the Ninth) based upon the best-selling The Eagle of the Ninth she wrote about the “rediscovery” of “this great writer”. I am with the comments of living writers reported in the Bookseller:

Neil Gaiman said he was “enormously disappointed” by the decision to lose her, calling her “a perceptive champion of children’s books”. Francesca Simon said Craig had been one of her early champions and called the newspaper “crazy to lose her expertise”.

Let us hope Amanda  moves, as she hopes, to another national “with a more far-sighted vision of how readers are made”.

See here for her Times article

Sword at Sunset Arthurian novel by Rosemary Sutcliff an ‘odd one out’ | The Independent newspaper in Dec 2012

Anthony Lawton8 Comments

Historian, writer and journalist  Christina Hardyment reflected on Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff in response to the anniversary edition of  Sutcliff’s Arthurian adult novel – an ‘odd one out’.

Rosemary Sutcliff is most famed for The Eagle of the Ninth, but there was much more to her than that. In the 1950s, historically-minded children found her books a magic carpet into the past. I began with Brother Dusty-feet (1952) and The Armourer’s House (1951), and never looked back an insatiable interest in history has remained the backbone of my life.

In 1954, The Eagle of the Ninth introduced Marcus Flavius Aquila, a young Roman who chooses to stay in Britain after the legions leave. Seven subsequent books follow his family’s fate, usually directly. The odd book out is the fifth, Sword at Sunset, now published in a new edition to celebrate its 50th birthday. In 1963, it was firmly announced to be for adults, and given the (for their time) graphic and violent scenes of sex and slaughter, it deserved to be.

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Re-discovering Rosemary Sutcliff

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Reader Angela Roemelt posted at the You Write! tab on this blog a few days back – sorry I missed it, caught up with work demands :

I can totally relate to …  experience of rediscovery . I have read many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s books as a child and teenager. I started re-reading them a couple of years ago as a ‘mid-fortyager’ and it was like meeting old friends. visiting old places, but seeing them now from a different perspective. Read More »

Rediscovering Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels | Finding Dawn Wind

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

By profession a writer and editor herself, Hilary Phillips has found Rosemary Sutcliff’s books again, and has posted about the experience at the You Write tab. Thank you!

I rediscovered Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels this winter, having watched the film The Eagle. I remembered how much I had enjoyed reading a number of her books as a teenager, so launched in with The Lantern Bearers, as the first one that I came across on my eldest son’s rather disorganised bookshelves. I then read The Silver Branch and just for completeness, reverted to The Eagle of the Ninth which I had read repeatedly as a child and young teen, so it definitely felt like rediscovering an old friend. If you know the series you’ll realise this is completely reverse order, which just seemed to add to the charm. And I honestly thought that was it for the series. Although I knew there were plenty of other books, I didn’t realise that she had continued the story over so many generations, and in fact that, in many ways the climax was still to come. So how wonderful when my caring husband produced A Sword at Sunset as a Christmas present. Genuinely, the book I really wanted to exist, but had no knowledge of! I escaped into the dark ages for the Christmas holidays and thoroughly enjoyed the epic tale, the battles, the adventuring, the sad realness of the love story and the freshness of the storytelling, despite its roots in the Arthur legend.

Now, Dawn Wind came along at Easter, just republished and a very fine piece of writing. I really have no memory of reading this as a teenager and although the book may have been aimed at young adults, either that’s still the stage I’m at (I wish) or there’s really a great deal more there for the taking. The characterisation is convincing, the story enthralling as each new stage of Owain’s life opens up. The descriptions of place, of time, of conflict, of dogs and horses, loyalty, love and commitment are as engaging as ever. In case you’ve not read it, I’ll not spoil the ending, but go on the adventure and discover what happens in Owain’s long journey across dark age Britain for yourself!

Self-published science fiction and fantasy writer Rabia Gale influenced as child by historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rabia Gale, who grew up in Pakistan, recently published Shattered:Broken Fairy Tales and spoke at Siri Paulson’s blog of “the three authors whose works influenced me the most as a child”. One was Rosemary Sutcliff; all were  British; perhaps, she mused, because her “biggest source of books was the subscription library run by the British Council”.

Sutcliff is best known for her historical fiction set in Roman Britain. Her protagonists are young soldiers who make heartbreaking decisions in the face of the tide of history, whether it is the inevitable conquest of Britain by the Romans or the subsequent  onslaught of the Anglo-Saxons. Sutcliff is a master at evoking the time and place of her stories. From her, I learned how powerful and poignant a small moment can be, whether it is a woman combing sparks out of her hair, a man crushing a singed moth between his fingers, or a deserter setting ablaze the fires of a lighthouse one last time as Rome abandons Britain.

Source: British Authors I Love | Siri Paulson’s Blog