As regular readers will see, despite my best intentions, I am still struggling to maintain this blog properly while starting a new full-time job. But here is a snippet of rather pleasing news….For Rosemary Sutcliff’s publishers (one of them) OUP, remind me that the the boxed set has just published. And The Eagle of the Ninth continues to be their best-selling eBook, which is rather satisfying for them, me and I hope enthusiasts who gather here!
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.
Freaked out for years by ghost legionaries in Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth
James Dunlop has commented on another post:
My 1977 copy of The Eagle of the Ninth (by Rosemary Sutcliff) still has the entry from the Radio Times (with a photo of Anthony Higgins as Marcus … ) glued inside the front cover. I’ve also got a page torn out of the Radio Times lurking somewhere – I was nine at the time and it made a really big impression on me. I’m now an archaeologist who really doesn’t have much time for Romans, but when I re-read The Eagle of the Ninth last year, I still found Marcus a really lovely – and yet at the same time convincingly Roman – character.
Oh, and I remember there was that bit with the dream where the ghost legionaries turned round and had skulls instead of faces. That stayed with me for YEARS!! I was freaked out by skeletons for decades afterwards (though I’ve grown out of that little foible now, thank goodness!)
Dawn Wind by Rosemary Sutcliff being re-issued | Book cover with Charles Keeping original illustration
Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel for children (“of all ages 8 to 88”) Dawn Wind is being republished. The cover proofs arrived recently. Happily OUP are able to use the original Charles Keeping picture.
Dawn Wind involves the last Roman-British wearer of the dolphin ring which features in several Rosemary Sutciff historical novels. Owain is the only survivor of a Viking raid and the great battle of Aquae Sulis. Just fourteen years old, his father and brother die at the battle but he eventually makes his way to a peaceful Saxon settlement where he is made thrall to a Saxon family. Travelling there he meets a half-wild girl whom he cares for but is forced to leave behind when she falls ill. They meet up again after many years apart, still so in tune with each other that they are able to understand each other’s wordless messages. During his years of service he discovers understanding and even friendship, and loyalty for the people who were once his enemies. His freedom earned, he shoulders the weight of the Saxon household rather than betray a promise to his former master.
“Catreath, Cataractonium as the Romans had called it” | Catterick now | In Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Shining Company
One of the pleasures of curating this blog about Rosemary Sutcliff, the eminent historical novelist and children’s writer (who regular readers will know was a close, much-loved relative of mine) is the contributions you readers make by way of ‘comments’ on particular posts, and also the ‘You Write!’ tab. A recent 1988 diary entry mentioned Catraeth. Jane mused about Catterick camp and Jane picked up the baton:
The Catterick Garrison is still in operation – it’s the largest BritIsh Army garrison in the world.
The old Roman fort of Cataractonium will be familiar to those who’ve read The Shining Company – it’s the setting for the last desperate stand of the Company against the Saxon forces of Aethelfrith, Lord of Bernicia and Deira.“Catreath, Cataractonium as the Romans had called it, was a double cohort fort, and so there was room enough for all of us within the crumbling defences.”
Cataractonium’s marching camp also makes an appearance: “And so, with the forest reaching up towards us, we came to the remains of yet one more fort in that land of lost forts, and made our last night’s camp. It was not much of a fort, maybe only a permanent marching camp in its time, and being on the edge of the forest country the wild had taken it back more completely than those of the high moors…. little remained of the buildings but turf hummocks and bramble domes”.
Although it isn’t one of the Aquila family sequence, there’s one of those “aha” moments in Shining Company which readers of Sutcliff work enjoy – a connection made with Frontier Wolf (set a couple of centuries earlier) when young Prosper and a couple of companions out on a training exercise camp at the (now ruined) Cramond fort where the action in Frontier Wolf takes place. Sutcliff uses the linking device very effectively as a way of emphasizing continuity.
And ,of course, as well as making me wiser about Catterick and Catraeth, and reminding me of Frontier Wolf , this prompts me to ask all you readers and contributors – regular and occasional – please do tell us some more “Aha” moments …
Rosemary Sutcliff preferred the US edition of her historical novel The Shining Company
In the light of today’s (29th June) entry in Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1988 diary, I went back to her novel The Shining Company. Rosemary, my godmother and cousin, kindly gave me and my family a copy when the US edition was published. She reveals her preference for it in the letter she enclosed (which I had forgotten!)
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 