Apologies everyone who reads here regularly, and to those who seek very up-to-date posts. I have been taking a break from keeping this site and blog refreshed with new posts, and from curating other material, for some holiday, and now in recent weeks, starting a new full-time job! (Warden of the Mary Ward Settlement, which includes The Mary Ward (Adult Education) Centre, and the Mary Ward Legal Centre, as well as various community-based initiatives). Joining is going to absorb my attention for a few weeks yet. Meanwhile, I am glad various of you have been conversing elsewhere here, not least about the welcome availability of recordings of the 1970s TV version of The Eagle of the Ninth.
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.
Ray took Joan to see Major Barbara at Chichester Festival Theatre (Rosemary Sutcliff Diary, 9/7/88)
July 9th Saturday. M came and spent the evening with me while Ray took Joan to see ”Major Barbara” at the Festival Theatre. Hair wash.
The reference is to Chichester Festival Theatre, where the plays for the 1988 season were Major Barbara (by George Benrard Shaw), Hay Fever (by Noel Coward), Ring Around The Moon (by Jean Anouilh) and The Royal Baccarat Scandal (by Royce Ryton).
“Books – the best weapons in the world!” | Dr Who
There are many reasons to celebrate the Dr Who of the BBC TV science fiction series fame – although in the context of this blog I cannot recall what Rosemary Sutcliff thought of it. However, she thought very highly of books and of libraries, from whom she often accepted invitations to talk with young and old alike, writing as she did for “children aged 8 to 88”. Her research depended upon the many books she borrowed from the London Library. This challenging picture from a library was tweeted by the admirable, lively Seven Stories, Britain’s gallery and archive that celebrates the wonderful world of children’s literature.
The American hoard descended on me … (Rosemary Sutcliff Diary, 26/8/66)
June 26th Sunday. The American hoard descended on me this afternoon, bringing me a present of a scarlet sweat shirt with ‘Warrior Scarlet’ printed in white across the bosom.
For anyone stumbling upon this blog who is new to author Rosemary Sutcliff and her work, Warrior Scarlet was one of her finest historical novels. The scarlet of the sweat shirt may have been a careful choice by what I take to be some fans who wanted to visit her, or a group of school students. For Warrior Scarlet is the story of Drem, a boy who is growing up in a bronze-age settlement on the South Downs in Britain. Born with a withered right arm, Drem imagines that he will never be able to become one of the hunters of the tribe and win the right to wear the scarlet cloak of a warrior. The book follows him as he grows to manhood, and learns to overcome his disability. Those of you new to Rosemary Sutcliff should note that she herself was seriously physically disabled …
Rosemary Sutcliff’s grandfather apprenticed and qualified as an Apothecary in the 1800s
Today’s diary entry by author Rosemary Sutcliff refers to her mother. Coincidentally, I have today come across a copy of the original document which records the indenture as an apprentice apothecary of Rosemary Sutcliff’s grandfather (and my great grand-father), Dr Herbert Alfred Lawton (born 1851, died 1903).
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 