Category: Readers

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 Simon | A novel of the English Civil War

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Rosemary Sutcliff’s 1953 historical novel and children’s book Simon – the subject of a comment by Anne in an earlier post – is a story about competing loyalties in the midst of a civil war. The Washington Post and Times Herald on April 4th, 1954 said:

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. Read More »

LibraryThing reader loved The Queen Elizabeth Story | Rosemary Sutcliff Discovery of the Day

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Of Rosemary Sutcliff, Lizzy at LibraryThing writes to me:

When I was 10 my mum bought me The Queen Elizabeth Story. It was the first Rosemary Sutcliff I had read. I was fascinated with the historical detail, especially the clothes. I didn’t know what a ‘kirtle’ was at all. But by far the best part was when the tapestry of “Samarkhand the Golden” came to life. It is one of my favourite passages in literature, along with “Riddles in the Dark” from “The Hobbit”. My daughter is about to turn 10 and so I shall introduce her to Warrior Scarlet, The Eagle of the Ninth et al before long.

Charlotte loves Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Queen Elizabeth Story | Sutcliff Review of the Week

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Charlotte thinks that  Rosemary Sutcliff’s children’s historical novel The Queen Elizabeth Story is  “a lovely book, full of thick description and vivid character and history made real. And its magic is aided and abetted by the wonderful drawings of C. Walter Hodges“, her  “favourite children’s book illustrator.” Charlotte was writing a review on the Charlotte’s Library blog.


What really made this book for me, when I was young, was Adam. He was my first book love ( I was nine), and I am awfully fond of him still. He is lame, but so gallant and kind that Perdita doesn’t notice it…and in a scene I especially love, he invites a sad and lonely Perdita to a private banquet at the manor, where he makes the lords and ladies of a tapestry come alive for her in a glorious magical wonderful-ness.

Rosemary Sutcliff novel and Greek hero Alcibiades help classics undergraduate

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Twenty-two years ago today, in an article about putting right the wrongs attributed to historically famous figures, Sarah Jane Evans wrote about how Rosemary Sutcliff and Alcibiades (in The Flower of Adonis) once helped her as an undergraduate student of Classics.

Rosemary Sutcliff once got me out of a tight spot. Read More »