My Australian Nun (Diary, 5/4/88)

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

April 5th Tuesday. Heather was going at mid morning but stayed 0n for lunch and was still here when SN, my Australian Nun arrived (last here 11 years ago but didn’t seem the in the least like that) & finally departed something after 6. Sheila in London for the day.

© Anthony Lawton 2012

Heather (Lawton) is my sister. Sheila was a long-standing friend and companion, who came to be with Rosemary for periods of time to keep house,  interspersed with Joan (Underwood). Companions like Sheila helped Rosemary – who had significant physically disabilities because of her childhood Still’s  disease – with daily living. They helped her get up in the morning, and go to bed. They would make morning breakfast and evening supper .

Rosemary Sutcliff ‘carried dates diary to diary with her, and hurt herself, womanwise’

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Rosemary Sutcliff kept always with her in her diary notes about the love of her life. The notes cover sporadic events and periods from the 1940s to the end of the 1960s. After August 13th, 1969, she never saw him again: she spoke of him sometimes, and thought of him often. For, before the 1969 entries in her portable notes she writes (in brackets):

This is all in full in my 1968-9 diaries, but I take the dates down now, to be able to carry them from diary to diary with me and hurt myself, womanwise, with saying “A year ago today” or “Ten years ago today”.

Judging Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic of children’s literature and historical fiction The Eagle of the Ninth on two levels

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David Urbach has pointed me to a blogger’s 10/10 review of Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth.

Rosemary Sutcliff’s most famous book ought to be looked at in two different ways, and judged on two levels. Firstly, any reader venturing into historical fiction will be instantly drawn to it as a deserving classic. Every word of praise afforded The Eagle of the Ninth is surely deserved, and every criticism should be scrutinised heavily. This book is not only a simple story; it is a revelation. It is a sudden meeting between the children’s and young adults’ fiction of the ’80s and ’90s, when children’s literature began to be taken seriously; and literature from the early twentieth century and the nineteenth century, when writers felt able to wax philosophic and lyrical, and were not so concerned with spending a hundred pages on diligently establishing a scene and building meticulously to a grand climax or a cheap twist.
Source: The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff  | Library of Libation

Day of letting back hair down (Diary, 4/4/88)

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

April 4th, Easter Monday. Ray went out to fetch Heather and got her back safely a while before lunch time. Pleasant day of talk and letting back hair down.

© Anthony Lawton 2012

The old expression ‘Let one’s back hair down’ became ‘Let one’s hair down’. ‘Back hair’ was the common 19th century phrase for the long hair at the back of a woman’s head. Unpinning it and releasing the weight was a way of making yourself comfortable in informal situations. (From commenter Anne).

Just wish my head wasn’t so ghastly (Diary, 3/4/88)

Anthony Lawton6 Comments

The most beautiful Easter morning, tho’ a bit more clouds as the day has gone on; and the garden drifted with daffodils. Easter phone call from Ant this morning, and every things fired up for H coming tomorrow. Just wish my head wasn’t so ghastly and I could enjoy things more.

© Anthony Lawton 2012