The Carnegie Medal for 2013 is awarded today. The Medal is awarded every year in the UK to the writer of an outstanding book for children. (2013 shortlist here).
The eminent Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92) won the (former) Library Association Carnegie Medal in 1959 for her historical novel for children The Lantern Bearers (she wrote for children”aged 8 to 88″, she said). She was runner-up with Tristan and Iseult in 1972. Read More »
In September last year I posted at my parallel Rosemary Sutcliff Facebook page:
…a warm welcome to all who have ‘liked’ here in recent weeks …. I want to collect comments from people here about Rosemary, her books, what you have read, and why you love it…Comment away here and please do share this request.
People wrote as follows: Read More »
Slightly Foxed is, in their own words, “a rather unusual quarterly book review”, as I posted last year. It professes to be “unaffected by the winds of fashion and the hype of the big publishers” as it introduces readers to “some of the thousands of good books that long ago disappeared from the review pages and often from bookshop shelve.” “Companionable and unstuffy”, its contributors – some well-known, others not – all write “personally and entertainingly about the books they choose”. It appeals to me that it is “not so much a review magazine as a magazine of enthusiasms – some of them quite quirky”.
In the autumn of 2011 they launched a new paperback series, putting into paperback those Slightly Foxed Editions that have now sold out. I remain delighted that Rosemary Sutcliff’s autobiography Blue Remembered Hills was released. It is pocket-sized and very elegantly produced.
An illustration by John Vernon Lord for Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset, Edito-Service Geneva, 1975. Reproduced at the blog johnvernonlord.blogspot.co.uk a couple of days ago.
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) 