Rosemary Sutcliff The Eagle of the Ninth author on being a person and writer with disabilities

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From the cover of Rosemary Sutcliff's autobiography The Blue Remembered HillsRosemary Sutcliff, a most able writer of children’s books and historical fiction (‘co-writer’ of film The Eagle (of the Ninth)), spoke of the ‘surprising loss of privacy’ when she wrote about living with her disability for the ‘Emotions in Focus’ exhibition at The Roundhouse (London) which celebrated the 1981 International Year of Disabled People.

Career-wise, I’m one of the lucky ones. My job, as a writer of books, is one of the few in which physical disability presents hardly any problems. I would claim that it presents no problems at all but my kind of book needs research, and research is more difficult for a disabled person. Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset | Sutcliff Book Review of the Week

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Sword at Sunset, a historical novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, was reviewed in 1987 by a reader who described himself as a ‘recovering chemical engineer’:

“… Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset stands out for its raw emotion and storyline stripped down to the essentials … This novel makes other versions, no matter how much fantasy and magic are injected, pallid by comparison. Other authors have recreated a gritty, realistic Arthur since Sutcliff introduced the idea more than forty years ago, but this first attempt at that take on the Arthurian legend still stands out as the best”.
(Eric Eller in Greenman Review)

Rosemary Sutcliff Black Ships Before Troy | Classical Studies and Ancient Greece

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels, including The Eagle of the Ninth (now a film/movie) and The Lantern Bearers, are classics of both children’s literature and historical fiction. Some novels, like The Flowers of Adonis, and some retellings such as Black Ships Before Troy are set in Ancient Greece. But according to one book review:

“Children’s literature does not feature much in classical studies, as classicists tend not to distinguish between literature written for children and literature that children happen to read’.Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff book The Mark of the Horse Lord

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Mark of the Horse Lord, a historical novel with illustrations by Charles Keeping, is loved by many people, including Channing Tatum, star of the film of The Eagle of the Ninth.

He hadn’t understood it, then.  He did not really understand now–his head only knew that when it had to be one or the other, there was not much else you could do but pay away your own life for the Tribe’s.  But something deep within him understood that it was not only among those who had followed the dark, ancient ways of the Earth Mother that the King died for the People; only among the Sun People the King himself chose when the time was come. (From The Mark of the Horse Lord, quoted by The Children’s Book Quote of the Day

Rosemary Sutcliff started school at ten, left at fourteen, but was a lifelong learner

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff, distinguished writer of children’s books and historical fiction, was rightly described as ‘impish’ and ‘irreverent’ by The Guardian when she died. But partly because she was playful, she was a learner all her life.

“When the playful me shows up, I am ready to be a serious learner … a culture of playfulness is closely related to the capacity to learn.”