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
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
A very interesting article by Annie Murphy Paul was recently published in “The New York Times” about the effects on the brain of fiction.
We all know that we particualrly respond to vivid and evocative stories like Rosemary Sutcliff’s, with characters we can engage with. This study comes up with some neurological reasons why this is so.
“Brain scans are revealing what happens in our heads when we read a detailed description, an evocative metaphor or an emotional exchange between characters. Stories, this research is showing, stimulate the brain and even change how we act in life….
The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. Keith Oatley, an emeritus professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Toronto (and a published novelist), has proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” Fiction — with its redolent details, imaginative metaphors and attentive descriptions of people and their actions — offers an especially rich replica. Indeed, in one respect novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers an experience unavailable off the page: the opportunity to enter fully into other people’s thoughts and feelings.”
Full text
“The Brain in Fiction”
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Sorry, must have had a dozy moment there – make that Foreword, of course!
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Recently we were chatting on the Historical Fiction Online forum http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/forums/index.php
about how good it had been to see “Sword at Sunset” reclaimed from out-of-print wilderness when it was reissued in 2008 by the Chicago Review Press .
It came to mind that you might like to read the Foreward for that edition, which was written by Jack Whyte, acclaimed author of the Arthurian series, ”The Camulod Chronicles”. (I have truncated it a bit as it’s quite long, but can provide you with the whole piece if you would like to see it.)
Foreward to the 2008 edition of “Sword at Sunset”, by Rosemary Sutcliff
In the early 1960s, when I was studying in France, an American friend gave me a novel by Rosemary Sutcliff called “Sword at Sunset”, and I am not exaggerating when I say it changed my life. At the time I had no idea how much the experience had affected me; it had not yet entered my mind that I might one day become a writer of any kind. But that initial encounter with Rosemary Sutcliff’s magnificent story set in motion a chain of events, and of perceptions, that I have lived with ever since. “Sword at Sunset” marked my maiden voyage into the realms of historical fiction, and was one of the very few books – I can think of only three in my life – that I read compulsively and then went straight from the last page back to the first to read it again. But already in the first of those two obsessive readings, all my previously held viewpoints and opinions regarding the Arthurian legend had been set aside or altered forever.
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote of primitive post-Roman Britain and the warlord called Artos the Bear, who fought so long and hard to unite and defend his fragmented holdings against the depredations of the invading Anglo-Saxon hordes. Her vision was so authoritative, so credible and convincing, that I never again thought of Arthur’s followers as knights in shining armor, nor viewed his story only in terms of myth, romance and supernatural mysticism. Instead, I thought from that point on about the historical Arthur, the man rather than the mythical king, and I saw the magnitude of the task facing him in human terms – clan and tribal loyalties and prejudices to be overcome, strategy and tactics to be envisioned and developed….
I remember when I was about to publish my first novel, “The Skystone”, in 1992, it occurred to me that I should dedicate it to Rosemary Sutcliff and “Sword at Sunset”. I didn’t do it, and I have sometimes regretted that. Now, however, I am privileged to be able to say to a whole new generation of readers, “Sit back, make yourself comfortable, and get ready to enjoy a tale that will thrill you to the marrow”.
Jack Whyte
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well, then, give me your address, and i ll do just that..
my mail is felida@pt.lu
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that would be lovely, thank you.
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I still have the letter, I keep it inside the Mark of the Horse Lord (my favourite)
But as i am very bad at scanning and I even suppose my scanner is not really up to it’sjob, i would rather copy it and send the copy to you, like it was done traditionnally…. If you don’t mind.
pia
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I started reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s books, when I was 14. I even wrote her a letter once, at the age of 20, to tell her my admiration and she replied me very kindly.
I am 56 now and i still love these books, and read them time and time again.
Reading Rosemary Sutcliff didn’t start my passion for history, as i always had it, But it started my passion for Britain, which I passed on to my husband and my children.
She was a very important person in my life.
pia
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What a pleasure to read this comment, and to learn how Romie (as I knew her) was such an important person in your life. Thank you
Would you be able to send me a scanned copy of the letter she sent you – if you still have it? Would you be happy for me to put a copy here on this blog?
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A pleasant surprise to see Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels recommended as cool teenage reads in the New York Public Library’s “Stuff For the Teen Age” blog
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/02/16/hot-historical-fiction-part-1-gladiators-roman-soldiers-and-slaves
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I was just checking out The Black Gate, one of my favourite websites, and blow me down, Rosemary Sutcliff’s name jumped out at me.
Some Notes on “The Eagle of the Ninth” by Matthew David Surridge
http://www.blackgate.com/2012/02/13/some-notes-on-the-eagle-of-the-ninth/#more-30023
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We’ve just been discussing the connection between Wallace Breem and Rosemary Sutcliff at the Historical Writers’ Association website, and I thought it might also be of interest to Rosemary Sutcliff fans.
Wallace Breem is best known for his novel “Eagle in the Snow”, set at the frontiers of the dying Roman Empire. However he did write two other excellent historical novels, sadly underrated. I recently came across “The Leopard and the Cliff”, set on the Northwest Frontier of India and Afghanistan in 1919, and reprinted in 2010 due to its resonance with ongoing events in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I was intrigued to find that Rosemary Sutcliff was an admirer of Breem’s and he acted as advisor for several of her novels, in particular “Frontier Wolf.” You can see how they would have had an affinity- apart from the fact that both found Kipling’s work a major inspiration, many of their central themes are similar- honour, duty, brotherhood of arms and the acceptance of sacrifice as the price sometimes required for the good of the whole – the sort of virtues that went with the best of the old British Imperial service. It’s quite possible to see common elements in “Frontier Wolf” and “Leopard and the Cliff” despite their very different settings; the delicate balance between conqueror and conquered, so easily destroyed, cross-cultural friendships irreparably damaged by conflicting loyalties, making the hard choices and the long trek from a remote outpost to safety while running the gauntlet of hostile tribesmen.
Breem’s personal situation also bore some resemblance to that of Marcus in “Eagle of the Ninth”, who lost the life he loved as an officer with the Roman Army, and went through a miserable time before making a new start. All Breem ever wanted was to be a Frontier Scout with the British Indian Army. He worked hard, made it and it was everything he’d dreamed of- he loved the life and thrived on it, expecting it to be his permanent career. However, with Partition in 1947 the Northwest Frontier became part of Pakistan. The British Raj in India was dissolved and British Indian Army officers surplus to requirements. Breem was left bereft. He had a dark and confused time for a bit trying various odds and ends before eventually finding a new career as a law librarian. He actually wrote “The Leopard and the Cliff” on the ship home from India as a way of distracting himself from his unhappiness, though he didn’t publish it till many years later.
Rosemary Sutcliff loved “Eagle in the Snow”- here is the endorsement she wrote for it, published with the third printing of the first edition in 1970:
‘I found it most compelling, and painfully moving, a book of great integrity which impressed me from the first page with its feeling of complete authenticity. I felt that I really was reading a general’s memoirs (considerably more enjoyable than most generals’ memoirs!). A book very much after my own heart!’
If anyone’s interested in reading more about “The Leopard and the Cliff”, I have posted a review at the HWA website, where some of the points I’ve just mentioned came up, so please forgive me if I repeat myself.
http://www.thehwa.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,628.msg2998.html#new
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I am haunted by “Eagle in the Snow.”
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