Tag: disability

Was Rosemary Sutcliff in a wheelchair or wheelchair-bound?

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

One of the delights of Twitter is to follow such things as the Guardian newspaper style-guide (twitter.com/guardianstyle). But an entry today set me thinking about the confines of wheel-chairs, disability and how to use language.

The tweet read: “… say (if relevant) that someone uses a wheelchair, not is ‘in a wheelchair’ or ‘wheelchair-bound’ – (which is) stigmatising and inaccurate”. I am not so sure it is so simple, when I recall time spent with my godmother and cousin Rosemary Sutcliff – Romie, as I knew her –  and her attitude to her wheel-chair. She did consider herself bound by her wheelchair in some respects and would dearly like not to have been. Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff The Eagle of the Ninth author on being a person and writer with disabilities

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

From the cover of Rosemary Sutcliff's autobiography The Blue Remembered HillsRosemary Sutcliff, a most able writer of children’s books and historical fiction (‘co-writer’ of film The Eagle (of the Ninth)), spoke of the ‘surprising loss of privacy’ when she wrote about living with her disability for the ‘Emotions in Focus’ exhibition at The Roundhouse (London) which celebrated the 1981 International Year of Disabled People.

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. Read More »

Historical novelist Rosemary Sutcliff disliked history at school

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Rosemary Sutcliff disliked history at school, which she only started aged ten. And she missed much of the usual childhood activity and friends because of prolonged illness and hospital stays – she had Stills disease.Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff obituary (1920-1992) | The Independent newspaper reviews Rosemary Sutcliff life and work

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels ‘set a new standard for children’s historical fiction because of their insight, passion and commitment’ said The Independent in its obituary in 1992 about the famous chidren’s author. Mind you, she wrote for adults too and some  books were marketed as adult historical fiction (like Sword at Sunset which topped the bestseller lists).Read More »

The Eagle of the Ninth | Film and Book | Rosemary Sutcliff Review of the Week

Anthony Lawton1 Comment

The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel and children’s book now being filmed, then only a book , was reviewed by Zbigniew Tycienski  in June 2009. Zbigniew grew up in south-east Poland but settled in Edinburgh, Scotland

One may at first conclude that Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth (1954) is a book for boys about men and masculinity. The women of the book inhabit a shadowy, backstage world, of service and mothering, and the hero of the story, Marcus Aquila, only finds an ally in the twelve-year old Cottia because she is not so much a girl as a friendly, faithful dog.Read More »