Category: General

Trawling the internet, researching libraries and databases, and occasionally from material sent to me, I discover things I did not know much about, or indeed at all! There can be more than one Discovery of the Day.

Japanese Film-maker Hayao Miyazaki’s Top 50 Children’s Books include Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Top 50 books including Rosemary SutcliffAt the Skunk & Burning Tires blog, author Ju-osh M. is – by his own admission – “far too old to be seeking the attention and approval of strangers”. Yet – to adapt a phrase of his – there he was, there I was and here you are. He thought “it would be fun” to revisit animated film-maker Hayao Miyazaki’s “fifty favourite children’s books”. (I am not sure of his source; nor do I know if this is in order of preference). As mentioned before on this site, books by Rosemary Sutcliff were amongst the stories Miyazaki loved.

1. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2. Il Romanzo di Cipollino (The Adventures of the Little Onion)  by Gianni Rodari

3. The Rose and the Ring by William Makepeace Thackeray

4. The Little Bookroom  by Eleanor Farjeon

5. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

6. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

7. Die Nibelungensage (The Treasure of the Nibelungs) by Gustav Schalk

8. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

10. A Norwegian Farm  by Marie Hamsun

11. The Humpbacked Horse by Pyotr Pavlovich Yershov

12. Fabre’s Book of Insects by Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre

13. Toui Mukashi no Fushigina Hanashi-Nihon Reiiki by Tsutomu Minakami

14. Ivan the Fool by Leo Tolstoy

15. The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles (Three books)  by Rosemary Sutcliff

16. Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne Read More »

2013 in review | Happy New Year 2014 Rosemary Sutcliff enthusiasts

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

The WordPress.com stats helper  prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog!

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 46,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

I am not sure what to make of that copmparison …but if you would like to read it …click here to see the complete report.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What to read after Warrior Scarlet and before The Eagle of the Ninth?

Anthony Lawton4 Comments

Clara has posted elsewhere on this site:

Thank you for this excellent website – I’m introducing Rosemary Sutcliff’s books to my children, having enjoyed them myself. We’ve done a project on The Ridgeway this winter, and so I’ve begun by reading aloud Warrior Scarlet, in the evenings. What comes next? Without getting too hung up on chronology, is there another pre-Roman book, before I begin on the eagles? Many thanks.

Rosemary Sutcliff invited me into her home for one of the most amazing afternoons of my life

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Lovely post over at the Rosemary Sutcliff Facebook page from Canadian elementary school principal Laurel Piper The:

My favourite teacher … introduced me to Rosemary’s books when I was in grade 7 or 8 after which I read every one I could find. I wrote to her and sent her some of my awful adolescent poetry and to my complete delight and astonishment, she wrote back. We corresponded until 1979 when I travelled to England and looked for her home in Arundel, Sussex. Her home had no number but was simply called Swallowshaw. After asking many people, I finally got directions and landed on her front door. When she opened the door she exclaimed, “My Canadian friend!”

She invited me into her home (with my mom, sister and aunt in tow) and for one of the most amazing afternoons of my life, engaged in conversation with me about her books. The two of us talked as though we were the only ones on the planet. When it was time to leave she told me to choose a book from her shelf. I chose Sword at Sunset which she autographed for me. This generous lady was so gracious. I didn’t know her arthritis was so horrible. She stood for our entire visit. She wrote her books by hand on a big draftsman’s table on huge sheets of paper. Her fingers were quite gnarled which made me feel humble to think she had corresponded with me in her own handwriting, knowing what it must have cost her to do so. A very strong, intelligent, creative, generous, wonderful lady.

Rosemary Sutcliff’s nativity scene | A hand-made miniature

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Before Rosemary Sutcliff  became a published writer in the 1950s she was an artist. She made beautiful miniature paintings, and later a stunning nativity scene. I  inherited this when she died in 1992.