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.

Story-telling promoted by award-winning The Moth project in USA

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Yesterday I wrote briefly of an essay on the radio about  storytelling in the theatre by fascinating performer, writer and director Emma Rice, of Kneehigh Theatre, characterising her as in the same trade as Rosemary Sutcliff. (The post received the largest ever number of hits for one post on this blog, on the day of posting!) Today I read of a story-telling project in the USA which is completely new to me, but looks equally fascinating. It has just won a 2012 MacArthur Foundation Award for Creative and Effective Institutions.

The Moth is a not-for-financial-profit organisation “dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling”. It is a “celebration of both the raconteur, who breathes fire into true tales of ordinary life”, and the “storytelling novice, who has lived through something extraordinary and yearns to share it”. The Moth’s directors “work with each storyteller to find, shape and tell their story”. Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth | Echoes of Tolkien and Robert E Howard? | From the Black Gate blog

Anthony Lawton4 Comments

The Eagle of the Ninth lives in its atmosphere. Sutcliff powerfully catches both everyday Roman life and the beauty of ancient Britain. Her use of detail is effective, and her descriptive prose is powerful and suggestive. Reading the book, I was caught again and again by glinting moments of terrible beauty; by her ability to conjure up vistas of ruined fortresses and mist-covered landscapes. At different times, and for different reasons, I found myself thinking of first Tolkien, and then, oddly, Robert E. Howard.

Source: Black Gate | Blog Archive | Some Notes on The Eagle of the Ninth.

Rosemary Sutcliff in Baby Names for Dummies!

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

On a more trivial note:  a rather surpising form of recognition for Rosemary Sutcliff is to appear as an example of the name ‘Rosemary’ in “Baby Names for Dummies”!

Rosemary in Baby Names for Dummies

Cover of Baby Names for Dummies

Hunting for Rosemary Sutcliff stories and plays

Anthony Lawton8 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff’s work was documented and examined by Sandra Garside-Neville for the Historical Novels’ Society. She refers to several stories and plays which I have not documented here, I realise. I do not have copies. Can anyone supply them?

1964    The Fugitives (in Miscellany One, edited by Edward Blishen)

1966    The New Laird (radio play script)

1967    The Man Who Died at Sea (in The House of the Nightmare and other Eerie Stories, edited by Kathleen Lines)

1970   The Making of an Outlaw (in Thrilling Stories from the Past for Boys edited by Eric Duthie)

1970   Swallows in the Spring (in Galaxy edited by Gabrielle Maunder)

1986    Mary Bedell (play)

1992    The Eagle of the Ninth: Play (with Mary Rensten)

Rosemary Sutcliff relative and sometime contributor to this weblog at work!

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

For more on the  unique Folk in a Box project, see here