Legacy of Rosemary Sutcliff and The Eagle of the Ninth | Sandcastle or Temple to Mithras?

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Rosemary Sutcliff relished the imagination and creativity of children, as well as readers’ responses to her novels. Writing in Books for Keeps, Brian Alderson, former Children’s Books Editor of The Times, recalled an anecdote which dates from some time after the publication of The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. Rosemary recounted to a ‘bevy of librarians’:

‘That’s not a sand-castle,’ said the busy child on the beach, ‘I’m building a temple to Mithras’!

He commented that

In all probability the temple-builder’s enthusiasm for the work came from hearing its famed serialisation on ‘Children’s Hour’ but (perhaps unlike television serials) the wireless version sent listeners straight back to the book to get the author’s full-dress narrative to go with the spoken one.

Source: Classics in Short No.80

Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff

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Blue Remembered Hills is Rosemary Sutcliff’s autobiography, covering the period until she was first published. Avid reader Lyn commented on her blog earlier this year:

It’s a beautifully written story of a lonely child crippled by juvenile arthritis who nevertheless didn’t feel she had had a deprived life. The tone of the book is one of gratitude for life’s blessings & joy at the natural world, her friends, her dogs & her love for her parents.

A customer and Amazon reviewer – intriguingly at one of the Universities in the town where I write this – wrote over ten years ago:  Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff favourite Rudyard Kipling born 30th December

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Rosemary Sutcliff loved the work of Rudyard Kipling. Indeed, she wrote a monograph about him. Today (30th December) was his birthday (in 1865). She herself wrote in 1965 (I now realise perhaps to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth) in The Kipling Journal of the Kipling Society:

… other people write about things from the outside in, but Kipling writes about them from the inside out … I was something under six when my mother first read The Jungle Books to me. They were my first introduction to Kipling, and perhaps for that reason, they have an especial potency for me. From the first, I had an extraordinary sense of familiarity in the jungle; I was not discovering a new world but returning to a world I knew; and the closest contact I ever made with a ‘Story book Character’, I made with Bagheera, the black panther with the voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree and the little bald spot that told of a collar, under his chin.

British Museum Newsletter announces special The Eagle (of the Ninth) event & film preview

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Source: Remus – Magazine for the Young Friends of the British Museum

Rosemary Sutcliff novels and the North-East of England

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels and children’s books were  highlighted by Alan Myers who compiled an A to Z of the many writers who had a significant connection with the North-East of England. By 2008 (when I first posted this) I thought it had disappeared from the web but no, it is here.

One of the most distinguished children’s writers of our times, (some of ) Rosemary Sutcliff’s  …  books … (are now) considered classics. She sets several of her best-known works in Roman and Dark Age Britain, giving her the opportunity to write about divided loyalties, a recurring theme. The Capricorn Bracelet comprises six linked short stories spanning the years AD 61 to AD 383, and Hadrian’s Wall features in the narrative.The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) is perhaps her finest work and exemplifies the psychological dilemmas that Rosemary Sutcliff brought to her novels. Read More »