Tag: disability

Did The Eagle of the Ninth historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff want to be a romantic novelist?

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff‘s life and work in children’s, young adult, and adult literature, including The Eagle of the Ninth, was commented upon in 2003 by one of her editors on a website which I cannot now find (and I posted this first in April last year, 2010). She did have a “mystical communion with the past”, an “uncanny sense of place” and a rude sense of humour. But she certainly did not aspire to being a romantic novelist with books “full of sex”. Nor did she feel she had been “let down” by being “crippled by Stills disease”. And her best work was not only in the first half of her career; she had award-winning books up to the end of her life.

She wrote fine books after the 1950s and 1960s, for example the award-winning Song for a Dark Queen in the 1970s, The Shining Company in the 1980s (which won The USA’s Phoenix Award in 2010), and even her last manuscript Sword Song which was published after her death in the 1990s.Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff writes about being an artist with disabilities

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Rosemary Sutcliff wrote about disability in this piece  for the “Emotions in Focus” exhibition of erotic art by disabled people mounted to celebrate The International Year of Disabled People in 1981. Victor Lownes opened the exhibition at The Roundhouse, London (UK).

Career-wise, I’m one of the lucky ones. My job, as a writer of books, is one of the few in which physical disability presents hardly any problems. I would claim that it presents no problems at all but my kind of book needs research, and research is more difficult for a disabled person. I am less able to see for myself or dig priceless information out of deeply hidden archives. I have to rely more on other people’s help and on libraries. And even libraries can present problems – like one which shall be nameless – which is very proud of its ramp to its entrance but keeps its entire reference department upstairs, with, of course, no lift.Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff inspired Bob Williams-Findlay at school

Anthony Lawton4 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff inspired  Bob Williams-Findlay, who is himself a writer, as he explains in a brief but touching post he left today :

I was a teenager when I read The Eagle Of The Ninth and it inspired me to both read and write. I told my teacher I wanted to be a writer, but being a disabled person, I doubted I would succeed. Not too long after the school had a visitor, it was Rosemary. I had my answer and I still have the passion for writing. In my opinion Rosemary is up there with the best.

Rosemary Sutcliff can write for children | Brain impaired Martin Amis cannot

Anthony Lawton3 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff often said she wrote “for children aged 8 to 88” or sometimes “9 to 90”. She once said:

“The themes of my children’s books are mostly quite adult, and in fact the difference between writing for children and for adults is, to me at any rate, only a quite small gear change.”

It is a change of gear clearly beyond author Martin Amis! Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff writes about being a disabled person and author

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff , internationally-acclaimed writer of historical novels and books for children, wrote thirty years ago about living with disabilities for the ‘Emotions in Focus’ exhibition of erotic art by disabled people which was curated to celebrate The International Year of Disabled People in 1981, at  The Roundhouse, London (UK).

Career-wise, I’m one of the lucky ones. My job, as a writer of books, is one of the few in which physical disability presents hardly any problems. I would claim that it presents no problems at all but my kind of book needs research, and research is more difficult for a disabled person. I am less able to see for myself or dig priceless information out of deeply hidden archives. I have to rely more on other people’s help and on libraries. And even libraries can present problems – like one which shall be nameless – which is very proud of its ramp to its entrance but keeps its entire reference department upstairs, with, of course, no lift. Still, I am one of the lucky ones – not for me the heart-breaking business of convincing employers that I am employable. I work at home and if I produce a book which the publisher considers worth publishing, it gets published.

But there are drawbacks. Read More »