In 2008 Earl Spencer chose Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth as the book that had changed his life. On International Literacy Day in 2008 author Sebastian Faulks launched a campaign for Book Aid International ‘Books Change Lives’. The plan was to send thousands of books a year to communities in Africa. The campaign asked a number of celebrities and public figures to choose a book that had ‘changed their life’. Joanna Lumley chose The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang. Conservative leader, David Cameron picked Robert Graves’ account of life in the World War I trenches Goodbye to All That.
Google Books search relates odd four books to The Eagle of the Ninth | Sutcliff Discovery of the Day
Can anyone explain this, technically or otherwise? If you search for <“The Eagle of the Ninth” +Sutcliff> on Google books, there are four ‘related books”:
- Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
- The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
- Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Good books all in their different ways; and Rosemary is keeping fine company! But why these four, and not some of her other books, let alone some closer relatives like historical fiction …..
1963 Arthurian bestseller Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff reviewed in New York Timesf Review of the Week:
On April 5 in 1987 Patricia O’Conner wrote in The New York Times that: “Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel (Sword at Sunset) reinvents King Arthur, and the result, while far from the accepted legend, is ‘an expression of the purest affection for the Arthur of her heart’ ” as Robert Payne had said in The Book Review in 1963. He had written: ”He is a living presence who moves in a brilliantly lit and fantastic landscape only remotely connected with ancient England. And why not?”. Rosemary loved the fact that it went to the top of the UK adult fiction bestseller lists.
- See here for a brief summary of this re-telling of the King Arthur legend and all other Rosemary Sutcliff books.
- More on this blog about Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff
1974 Film Ghost Story with Marianne Faithfull co-written by Rosemary Sutcliff
Ghost Story, a film directed by Stephen Weeks in 1974, was co-written by Rosemary Sutcliff; or at least she has ‘story’ and ‘screenplay’ credits. I never saw the film, so never knew that the wonderful Marianne Faithfull was in it. (I keep moving this post up the blog so you see it because I am so amazed to havre discovered this!)
source: IMDb
The Economist praises Blood Feud by Rosemary Sutcliff
Every morning, at the same time, Rosemary Sutcliff would walk though to her study where, leaning on the walking stick she always used, first she would open her post and then read the Daily Telegraph. I do not think that I ever saw her reading The Economist, nor indeed did I ever see a copy of it in her study in Sussex. But I am sure that she would have read and welcomed its review of Blood Feud in 1976:
The chasm between children’s and adults’ literature narrows to a crack in historical fiction. In Blood Feud it is scarcely visible at all,Read More »
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 