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.

Two Rosemary Sutciff titles in the top ten historical fiction and fantasy books to make Amanda McCrina cry

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Extract from a blog post by Amanda McCrina:
UK Hardback Cover Rosemary Sutcliff The Lantern Bearers in 1959

I feel like I should rename this as ‘Books that will make you cry if you, in fact, cry for books.’ I don’t, typically. The following books particularly moved me—if I did cry for books these would be the ones that did it—but I think I only truly cried at the first. (Some spoilers follow, naturally.)

1) The Lantern Bearers, Rosemary Sutcliff.
Unsurprising to most of you who know me and my reading preferences. This is my favorite of her books, it’s very nearly my all-time-favourite book, and yes I have cried while reading it. Through most of the ending chapters, but especially at this part:

Aquila was staring into the fire, his arm across his knees. What was there to say to Flavia, after their last meeting, and the years between? And then he knew. He put up his hand and freed the shoulder-buckle of his leather tunic, and pulled it back; he dragged up the loose woollen sleeve beneath, to bare his shoulder, and leaned toward Mull in the firelight. ‘Look.’

Mull strained up higher on his sound arm, and looked. ‘It is a dolphin,’ he said.

‘A friend did it for me when I was a boy.’ He let his sleeve fall and began to refasten the buckle. ‘Ask her if she remembers the terrace steps under the damson tree at home. Ask her if she remember the talk that we had there once, about Odysseus coming home. Say to her–as though it were I who spoke through you, “Look. I’ve a dolphin on my shoulder. I’m your long-lost brother.”’

2) The Shining Company, Rosemary Sutcliff.
Not even among my top five of her books, probably, but undeniably a tear-jerker.

Source:  Top 10 Tuesday: Books to make you cry » Amanda McCrina — Historical fiction and fantasy; incl. The Lantern Bearers, Oxford University Press, pg. 292

65 editions of Rosemary Sutcliff books since her death in 1992 (incl DVD of The Eagle!)

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2014 The Mark of the Horse Lord. London: Red Fox Classics, 2014. ISBN 9781782950868 (pbk).
2013 Dawn Wind. Illustrated by Charles Keeping. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 1906562369 (pbk), 9780192793591 (pbk).
2013 The King Arthur Trilogy. London: Vintage Children’s Classics, 2013. ISBN 9780099582571 (pbk), 9781448161485 (ebook).
2012 Blue Remembered hills : A Recollection. London: Slightly Foxed, 2012. ISBN  1906562369 (pbk.), 9781906562366.
2012 Sword at Sunset. London  Atlantic, 2012. ISBN 9780857892430 (hbk); 9780857892447 (e-book).
2012 The Eagle of the Ninth Collection. Illustrated by Cyril Walter Hodges, Charles Keeping. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN 0192794728 (set), 9780192794727 (set). Read More »

The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff | A 1987 Compilation

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The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff, 1967

The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff (London: Chancellor Press, 1987) was a compilation of three books:

These are three of Rosemary Sutcliff’s most acclaimed works. Warrior Scarlet is set in Bronze Age Britain. It is the story of Drem, a boy with a withered arm, who dreams of slaying a wolf and earning his place amongst the warriors of the tribe.  The Mark Of The Horse Lord is a darker story, of revenge. Knight’s Fee tells the story of the boy dog handler Randal, who rises from this low position through a mixture of fate and his own abilities and character.

More about the plots of Rosemary Sutcliff’s books

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth was on BBC TV in 1977 | Getting DvD or download

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TV ProgrammeRosemary Sutcliff‘s historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth, which by 2011 had sold more than a million copies since its appearance in 1954 (according to publisher OUP), was made into a BBC TV series shot in Aberdeenshire in the 1970s.

Rosemary  Sutcliff adored the portrayal of Marcus, the hero. As I have posted before, I thought ” I probably had” old old video tapes of hers in the attic. I do not, I find now on moving house.

Some readers here and ‘likers’ of the Facebook page have lobbied for a re-release or at least DVD.  I have tried.  Meanwhile John has been doing sterling work respondng to requests for DvDs (see below). And now there is some action about downloading  with torrents (and I have managed to dowlaod the whole series and am loving it – I last watched it I think with Rosemary).

The TV series was broadcast in six episodes.

  1. Frontier Fort (4 September 1977)
  2. Esca (11 September 1977)
  3. Across the Frontier (18 September 1977)
  4. The Lost Legion (25 September 1977)
  5. The Wild Hunt (2 October 1977)
  6. Valedictory (9 October 1977)

Very tiny excerpts here.

(Revised 3/2/14)