For award-winning, internationally-acclaimed author Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92). By Anthony Lawton: godson, cousin & literary executor. Rosemary Sutcliff wrote historical fiction, children's literature and books, films, TV & radio, including The Eagle of the Ninth, Sword at Sunset, Song for a Dark Queen, The Mark of the Horse Lord, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, Dawn Wind, Blue Remembered Hills.
Category: Novels, Stories & Books
Rosemary Sutcliff was an internationally renowned writer of historical novels, for children, young adults and adults. She also wrote stories for children. This category compiles the posts on this blog by title.
The Singing Light blogger has recently been reading Rosemary Sutcliff, loving the prose but not finding the book as good as The Mark of The Horse Lord.
Sun Horse, Moon Horse by Rosemary Sutcliff: Sutcliff’s prose is amazing as always–the descriptions of the land, of the seasons, of the drawings are simply gorgeous. This is a slight little book, and it shares many of the same themes as Mark of the Horse Lord, and yet it’s simply not as impressive as Mark, perhaps because we don’t have as long to get to know the characters, perhaps because Lubrin Dhu isn’t Phaedrus.
Listed here is every title by Rosemary Sutcliff, the author and writer of historical fiction and children’s books. (Regular followers—and other visitors—you may like to check that this accords with your understanding. All comments about inaccuracies and additions are very welcome, below)
Eagle of the Ninth and similar
The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
The Silver Branch (1957), illustrated by Charles Keeping
The Lantern Bearers (1959), illustrated by Charles Keeping
The Capricorn Bracelet (1973), illustrated by Charles Keeping
Three Legions (1980), omnibus edition containing the first three books Read More »
L’Aigle de la Neuvième Légion is the French film version of The Eagle film derived from Rosemary Sutcliff’s best-selling historical fiction book L’Aigle de la Neuvième Légion (The Eagle of the Ninth). Posts about the film on this blog here.
In 2009, Lindsey Davis—writer of classical thrillers, creator of private investigator and poet Falco—listed in The Guardian newspaper her top ten books from her “shelves and shelves” of Roman material. She included Rosemary Sutcliff in “ten that are scholarly but user-friendly … all books I have enjoyed, all influenced my love of ancient Rome and most of them are in regular use for my work”.
Of The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff, she wrote:
Somewhere about the year 117 AD, the Ninth Legion, which was stationed at Eboracum, where York now stands, marched north to deal with a rising among the Caledonian tribes, and was never heard of again. Hooked? If not, there’s no hope for you. A wonderful novel, for children of all ages.
With excerpts from her remarks, her other nine choices were: Read More »
Rosemary Sutcliff’s first book, the unpublished Wild Sunrise, was about the Roman invasion of Britain told from the British viewpoint. The hero was Cradoc, a name Rosemary Sutcliff used later in The Eagle of the Ninth and in Sun Horse, Moon Horse.
Her father (George Ernest Sutcliff, who I knew as Uncle George) had a naval hero called Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, who went down with his flagship at the battle of Coronel in 1914.
Wild Sunrise disappeared, which “was as well”, Rosemary said in her memoir Blue Remembered Hills (1983), ‘because so much of me was in it, naked and defenceless’
Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Article on Rosemary Sutcliff by Gilian Avery
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 