The non-pareil of historical fiction is Rosemary Sutcliff

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Imogen Russell Williams wrote last year that “for me the nonpareil of children’s historical fiction remains Rosemary Sutcliff”:

Historical fiction for adults ranges in stature from the Booker-winning to the bodice-ripping – scholarly rambles or gleeful romps through a past animated, elucidated, or (at worst) knocked together into an unconvincing stage set by the writer’s imagination. The label carries its own baggage, however; like “crime”, or “fantasy”, sticking “historical” before “fiction” might, for some snobbish and deluded readers, require an “only” to complete the description.

It’s my feeling that historical fiction for children suffers less from the snootiness sometimes attracted by grown-up writing in the genre, perhaps because the educational cachet outweighs the sense that a “made-up” book is less worthwhile than a collection of primary sources. Certainly the best historical fiction of my childhood has remained with me, Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Blood Feud is ‘Exciting reading’ | Washington Post

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Rosemary Sutcliff Blood Feud coverSutcliff’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 

The 2012 Newbery Medal winner 2012 | Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

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Newberry Medal Winner 2012 children's literature Dead EndThe 2012 Newbery Medal winner is Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (published by Farrar Straus Giroux, who also published Rosemary Sutcliff in the USA). The importance of history and reading is at the heart of this “achingly funny romp” (according to the Newberry website) through a dying New Deal town. It tells the story of two months in the life of a boy named Jack Gantos, whose plans for vacation adventure are suddenly ruined when he is grounded by his feuding parent.  “Who knew obituaries and old lady death could be this funny and this tender?” said Viki Ash, chair of the Committee deciding the award. Anyone who reads this blog have a view?  Read More »

A Circlet of Oak Leaves (from 1968) | By Rosemary Sutcliff

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UK cover of A Circlet of Oak LeavesI 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.

The Lantern Bearers | Rosemary Sutcliff novel | Maxfield Parris frontispiece

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

I discovered from a search for <The Lantern Bearers> (the title of one of Rosemary Sutcliff‘s bestselling and award-winning historical novels) that there was an American painter of distinction, Maxfield Parrish, who made a work called The Lantern Bearers.  It was created originally, in 1908, as a frontispiece for the December 10, 1910 issue of Collier’s magazine.

The Lantern Bearers (1908) by Maxfield Parrish

A press release from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art quoted its director Don Bacigalupi in July 2010:  “The detailed representational style juxtaposed with a flat, almost medieval sky create spatial ambiguities that are most interesting. This work has a stage-set, dream-world quality that is compelling.” Hmmm…