This page is to help me gather material about Rosemary Sutcliff, historical novelist, writer of children’s books and fiction for young adults; and for you to take part, should you wish!
Posts made because of contact from this page or by email include:
- Rosemary Sutcliff influenced and inspired … Australian writer Keith Taylor
- Rosemary Sutcliff Dutch Translations
- Rosemary Sutcliff influenced and inspired … Reading University lecturer Matthew Nicholls
You might use this page to send me copies of reviews, or links to your own or other people’s material that you think might interest me and the increasing number of visitors to this blog. What have you read of Rosemary’s or about her or her work? What did you enjoy? Why? Would you recommend it to others? Have you recommended it? Who to ? Was your career (if you have one) or life influenced by Rosemary Sutcliff or her books at all? Anything else you want to suggest I put here about her? Do you have advice on improving this site and especially on fostering a network of the many people interested in Rosemary or touched by her in her lifetime or since? Anybody in particular to connect with for some reason? I look forward to hearing from some of you
Thank you! Anthony Lawton
a(dot)g(dot)lawton(at)gmail(dot)com
I’ve recently been rekindling my love of all things Arthurian (with possible project ideas of my own brewing), and re-reading Rosemary’s different versions (‘Sword at Sunset’, and the more romance cycle-adjacent children’s trilogy). I find it interesting to look at the creative choices modern writers make when revisiting a subject within which there are multiple canons and sub-canons which may contradict each other.
The challenge is what to do with plot-lines and characters invented in the High Mediæval French romances (and reader expectations about them), if you’re putting the story back into a Late Antique/v Early Mediæval setting. Different writers take different approaches. I’m esp interested in how they treat the relationship triangle. There are not many that go back to the pre-Lancelot scenario, which is closer to the Fionn story and to the Tristan story (ageing warlord – young wife – nephew/protégé). Rosemary substitutes Bedwyr as the lover. I can see why/how this works with her interest in inclusivity around disability (in the Welsh canon, Bedwyr loses a hand, which she follows). But I would have liked to see what she could have done with the triangle of Arthur, Gwenhwyfar and Medrawd.
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