July 1st Friday. Wet and miserable start to the month, but clearing up to a lovely afternoon later. G and J for tea.
Ray took Joan to see Major Barbara at Chichester Festival Theatre (Rosemary Sutcliff Diary, 9/7/88)
July 9th Saturday. M came and spent the evening with me while Ray took Joan to see ”Major Barbara” at the Festival Theatre. Hair wash.
The reference is to Chichester Festival Theatre, where the plays for the 1988 season were Major Barbara (by George Benrard Shaw), Hay Fever (by Noel Coward), Ring Around The Moon (by Jean Anouilh) and The Royal Baccarat Scandal (by Royce Ryton).
… a noble effort on his part … (Rosemary Sutcliff Diary, 30/6/88)
June 30th Thursday. A pile of Catraeth stuff from DE; most of it alas, no good, but a noble effort on his part.
Freaked out for years by ghost legionaries in Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth
James Dunlop has commented on another post:
My 1977 copy of The Eagle of the Ninth (by Rosemary Sutcliff) still has the entry from the Radio Times (with a photo of Anthony Higgins as Marcus … ) glued inside the front cover. I’ve also got a page torn out of the Radio Times lurking somewhere – I was nine at the time and it made a really big impression on me. I’m now an archaeologist who really doesn’t have much time for Romans, but when I re-read The Eagle of the Ninth last year, I still found Marcus a really lovely – and yet at the same time convincingly Roman – character.
Oh, and I remember there was that bit with the dream where the ghost legionaries turned round and had skulls instead of faces. That stayed with me for YEARS!! I was freaked out by skeletons for decades afterwards (though I’ve grown out of that little foible now, thank goodness!)
Dawn Wind by Rosemary Sutcliff being re-issued | Book cover with Charles Keeping original illustration
Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel for children (“of all ages 8 to 88”) Dawn Wind is being republished. The cover proofs arrived recently. Happily OUP are able to use the original Charles Keeping picture.
Dawn Wind involves the last Roman-British wearer of the dolphin ring which features in several Rosemary Sutciff historical novels. Owain is the only survivor of a Viking raid and the great battle of Aquae Sulis. Just fourteen years old, his father and brother die at the battle but he eventually makes his way to a peaceful Saxon settlement where he is made thrall to a Saxon family. Travelling there he meets a half-wild girl whom he cares for but is forced to leave behind when she falls ill. They meet up again after many years apart, still so in tune with each other that they are able to understand each other’s wordless messages. During his years of service he discovers understanding and even friendship, and loyalty for the people who were once his enemies. His freedom earned, he shoulders the weight of the Saxon household rather than betray a promise to his former master.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 