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.

Rosemary Sutcliff “just below Tolkien” says author K V Johansen

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Of historical novelist and children’s writer Rosemary Sutcliff, Canadian K V Johansen (author of The Warlocks of Talverdin books) has posted (via the You Write! tab):

You asked for mentions of other material on Sutcliff. I talked about her a bit in the chapter on retellings of the Arthurian and Robin Hood legends in my book on the history of children’s fantasy literature, Quests and Kingdoms (2005). Managed to sneak in some mention of her Romans, too, via The Lantern Bearers and Sword at Sunset. I think Rosemary Sutcliff is up there just below Tolkien in the “what shaped my deepest imagination and why I’m a writer writing the kinds of things I write” list.

Of this website for Rosemary Sutcliff she kindly said Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff historical novelist and children’s writer interviewed in The Independent newspaper in 1992

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Rosemary Sutcliff featured at length in an interview by Giselle Green on the weekend books page of The Independent newspaper  in April 1992 (April 18, page 26 of weekend section).

”It was in the Great fire-hall on Barra, in the Outer Hebrides and a terrible storm was brewing up outside. They had just pulled the wicker-work shutters across the membrane of the windows in case the storm blew its way in, but the draughts were still getting in everywhere. You could hear the booming of the waves pitching against the beach . . . the hangings and skins of sailcloths with dragons painted on them billowed up all over the place as if they would come to life. . .”

Rosemary Sutcliff folds her hands over her chest: ”Then my supper arrived. I looked up into a clear, calm evening, and my first thought was – ‘Thank heavens that awful wind’s gone!’ ”

A historical novelist for both children and adults, with 53 books to her credit, it is easy to see how, as one reviewer said: ”For Rosemary Sutcliff the past is not something to be taken down and dusted. It comes out of the pages alive, and breathing now . . .”  Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff blog now on rosemarysutcliff.com but …

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

For this work about and for Rosemary Sutcliff I have secured the rosemarysutcliff.com domain. But does anyone understand how doing this (via WordPress) interacts with Search Engine ‘Optimisation’? Thus, I was rather pleased with myself for ensuring that this blog featured fairly high up on the first page of any google search for “Rosemary Sutcliff”. (Headlines using the words Rosemary Sutcliff; using her name right at the start of many posts etc, even if it contorted the  writing). But now it seems to have disappeared. Search Rosemary Sutcliff and you get all manner of sites but not this one now! I suspect I may need to repost some of the earlier material to get it noticed by Google’s automatic system. Any advice anyone?

Blogger Jeff appreciates Rosemary Sutcliff’s evocative writing

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff attracts several appreciative posts on Jeff’s Secondat blog. He recently posted on the You Write tab on this blog about ” one of the many facets of her writing that appeals to me”. (Dear Reader – do please post there your responses to and stories about Rosemary).

She’s such a great story-teller that I sometimes find myself racing through her descriptions of the natural environment to get to the next development of plot. I think she put some of her best descriptive images closest to unfolding plot climaxes. Your eye catches the fine phrases and, if you’re like me, this puts you in a quandary, whether to move swiftly on or linger over the marvelous images. Here are some of the phrases I’ve most enjoyed (usually on my second or third reading of the books in which they occur):

— a brief wing of sunlight brushed along the flank of the little glen

— a dark soughing of the wind across the dead heather  Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth into costumes for film The Eagle

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff’s imaginings – and those of the the film-making experts – for  The Eagle of the Ninth are translated into costumes for the film The Eagle. Those involved speak about it here.