The WordPress.com stats helper prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog!
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 46,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
I am not sure what to make of that copmparison …but if you would like to read it …click here to see the complete report.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Clara has posted elsewhere on this site:
Thank you for this excellent website – I’m introducing Rosemary Sutcliff’s books to my children, having enjoyed them myself. We’ve done a project on The Ridgeway this winter, and so I’ve begun by reading aloud Warrior Scarlet, in the evenings. What comes next? Without getting too hung up on chronology, is there another pre-Roman book, before I begin on the eagles? Many thanks.
With Great Pleasure at Christmas 2013 on BBC Radio 4, first broadcast on Wednesday 25 December 2013, includes a reading from The Eagle of the Ninth. From the BBC 4 website:
John Lloyd is joined by Hugh Laurie, Miriam Margolyes, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Howard Goodall to perform his favourite pieces of writing, comedy and music. A special Christmas edition of With Great Pleasure recorded in front of an audience at the BBC Radio Theatre.
John Lloyd is a comedy guru, the brains behind QI and the producer of Blackadder – and Hugh Laurie revisits his sublime portrayal of the Prince Regent from Blackadder the Third in a couple of previously unperformed pieces written by John. His other choices include a performance by all the cast of a scene from Hay Fever by Noel Coward, in which John made his stage debut while at school.
Taking us through John\’s life in comedy are sound archive extracts from Julian and Sandy from Round The Horne and Peter Cook from Beyond the Fringe.
Books that have been important in John\’s life include The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, How The Mind Works by Steven Pinker and poetry collections ranging from Auden to ee cummings. Words of wisdom from Douglas Adams and Viz Top Tips are also quoted.
via BBC Radio 4 – With Great Pleasure, With Great Pleasure at Christmas 2013.
Lovely post over at the Rosemary Sutcliff Facebook page from Canadian elementary school principal Laurel Piper The:
My favourite teacher … introduced me to Rosemary’s books when I was in grade 7 or 8 after which I read every one I could find. I wrote to her and sent her some of my awful adolescent poetry and to my complete delight and astonishment, she wrote back. We corresponded until 1979 when I travelled to England and looked for her home in Arundel, Sussex. Her home had no number but was simply called Swallowshaw. After asking many people, I finally got directions and landed on her front door. When she opened the door she exclaimed, “My Canadian friend!”
She invited me into her home (with my mom, sister and aunt in tow) and for one of the most amazing afternoons of my life, engaged in conversation with me about her books. The two of us talked as though we were the only ones on the planet. When it was time to leave she told me to choose a book from her shelf. I chose Sword at Sunset which she autographed for me. This generous lady was so gracious. I didn’t know her arthritis was so horrible. She stood for our entire visit. She wrote her books by hand on a big draftsman’s table on huge sheets of paper. Her fingers were quite gnarled which made me feel humble to think she had corresponded with me in her own handwriting, knowing what it must have cost her to do so. A very strong, intelligent, creative, generous, wonderful lady.
Raymond H. Thompson (Author) interviewed Rosemary Sutcliff for the periodical Avalon to Camelot in 1986. In the introduction he wrote:
Though perhaps best known for historical novels set in Roman Britain, such as The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), Rosemary Sutcliff has written some of the finest contemporary recreations of the Arthurian story. She introduces us to Arthur in The Lantern Bearers (1959), a book for younger readers that won the Carnegie Medal, and in Sword at Sunset (1963) she continues his tale in his own words. She has also retold the Arthurian legend with clarity and elegance in Tristan and Iseult (1971), The Light Beyond the Forest (1979), The Sword and the Circle (1981), and The Road to Camlann (1981). Her later novels were set in the more recent past, but she returned to Dark Age Britain for her … novel The Shining Company (London: Bodley Head), which is based upon the Gododdin. This poem, composed about 600 A.D. in North Britain by the bard Aneirin to commemorate a band of British warriors who fell in battle against the Angles, is of special interest in that it provides us with the earliest mention of Arthur’s name and Sutcliff’s novel preserves the Arthurian echoes.
Source: Interview with Rosemary Sutcliff | Robbins Library Digital Projects.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 