Sutcliff’s gift is to recreate an era, in this case the 10th-century voyages of the Northmen and the rise of Byzantium, so convincingly that her readers accept without question the different mores of another time. The violence of the blood feud between two families set off by an accidental killing seems inevitable. No writing down here, no anachronisms, just a glorious sense of history, a sense of knowing how it was. Exciting Reading.
Source, Washington Post
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.
A Circlet of Oak Leaves (from 1968) | By Rosemary Sutcliff
I have been slowly updating, and I hope improving, the page here on this website with the brief summaries of the stories that Rosemary Sutcliff tells in her books. So, A Circlet of Oak Leaves (from 1968):
Gradually reveals the mystery behind a humble horse-breeder Aracos’s award for outstanding bravery. It tells the story of a daring exploit when Roman auxiliaries and legionnaires fought the Picts on the northern borders of England. Standing in for Felix, a legionary sick with fear before a battle, he fights with great courage and then sees Felix receive the Corona Civica for what he has been through.
All Rosemary Sutcliff’s books
A page on this website, tabbed at the top of the screen, summarises most of Rosemary Sutcliff’s fiction and non-fiction books, including all her historical fiction for children, young adults, and adults; also her autobiography. I have not really fathomed ‘search engine optimisation’, but it seems it may be useful also to reproduce the text in a post. So here it is, as it stands today, January 29th, 2012.
All dates are the date of first publication. Many titles have links to other posts about them on this website.Read More »
Simon (1953) | A novel of the English Civil War by Rosemary Sutcliff
Of Simon by Rosemary Sutcliff, written some sixty years ago, the Washington Post and Times Herald in the USA (April 4th, 1954) wrote: ‘it is a colourful story…..(and) Miss Sutcliff‘s interest in character makes even the minor characters interesting … she is adept too at communicating a sense of the Devon countryside”. The story?
All of England was taking sides for the King of Parliament in the 1640’s.Read More »
The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff | Favourite books of Philip Reeve
The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (are one of my favourite books) … or I could have chosen Knight’s Fee, or The Lantern Bearers, or Sun-horse, Moon-horse, or Frontier Wolf … Rosemary Sutcliff is one of my favourite children’s authors, and I doubt she ever wrote a bad book, but these were the two I liked best when I was growing up.Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 