For award-winning, internationally-acclaimed author Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92). By Anthony Lawton: godson, cousin & literary executor. Rosemary Sutcliff wrote historical fiction, children's literature and books, films, TV & radio, including The Eagle of the Ninth, Sword at Sunset, Song for a Dark Queen, The Mark of the Horse Lord, The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, Dawn Wind, Blue Remembered Hills.
A quotation from Rosemary Sutcliff about liking children, dogs and adults.
Rosemary Sutcliff, historical novelist and author for children, was once asked whether, as a writer of children’s books, she particularly liked children. Rosemary Sutcliff said:
I like a child or a dog or an adult according to their merits. I am prone to like more dogs on a percentage basis.
Rosemary Sutcliff said to the Radio Times in 1977: “I like a child or a dog or an adult according to their merits. I am prone to like more dogs on a percentage basis”! Dogs also feature in many of her books. Katherine Langrish, fantasy novelist, wondered if “perhaps Rosemary wrote about dogs as a way of owning them …?”
In Dawn Wind finds Dog, a young war-hound, by moonlight on the ruins of a battlefield:
… it was something alive in the cold echoing emptiness of a dead world. It stood with one paw raised, looking at him, and Owain called, hoarsely, with stiff lips and aching throat: ‘Dog! Hai! Dog!’ … [It] came, slowly and uncertainly… once it stopped altogether; then it finished at the run and next instant was trembling against his legs. He was a young dog; the beautiful creamy hair of his breast-patch was stained and draggled, and his muzzle bloody in the moonlight… ‘Dog, aiee, dog, we are alone then. There’s no one else. We will go together, you and I.’
For reasons I cannot divine, my Google alert for new items on <Rosmeary Sutcliff> pointed today to a 2011posting at this blog about her appearance on BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs! At that time, a recording of Rosemary Sutcliff’s appearance with Roy Plomley was not available for downloading. It is now, here.
In the usual way on this radio programme, Rosemary Sutcliff talked (in October 1983) about her life and work and chose eight records to take to the mythical BBC Radio desert island. She said she chose her music just because she loved it—not everyone does, especially these PR-obsessed days. Her choices were:
Read more about Desert Island Discs, and stream the episode, here
Around 1962 Margaret Meek wrote a monograph about Rosemary Sutcliff, only a decade or so into a writing career that was to last for another 30 years. She spoke of Rosemary choosing names “with a poet’s care”:
Rosemary Sutcliff’s magic has certain recognizable elements; the names of the characters are chosen with a poet’s care, the dogs have a central place and are characterized with the loving attention children recognize and approve. The villains, such as Placidus in The Eagle of the Ninth and Allectus in The Silver Branch are acidly etched, although there is more reliance on traditional enmity and feud than on personal evil to provide the dark side. Episodic characters, singly or in groups, have a miniaturist’s clarity of outline. Pandarus, the gladiator with his rose in the battle, Galerius the surgeon, the garrulous household slaves, soldiers at a firelit cockfight or warriors at a feast, all are equally memorable.
Others more involved in the developing action, commanding officers, wise men of the tribes, outcasts, especially Guern the Hunter, Evicatos of the Spear and Brother Ninnias, have a legendary quality. Tradui the Chieftain at the making of New Spears, Bruni, dressed in the war gear of a Jutish hero dying as the wild geese fly south, blind Flavian, killed at the hands of marauding Saxons, all carry a dignity and heroism that link this series of tales with the legends Miss Sutcliff loves to tell. Indeed, part of the difficulty in evaluating the achievement of these books comes from the thickly woven texture which is as closely wrought as in many adult novels of quality.
(First posted 30 March, 2010; revised, 24 March, 2014)
June 19th Monday. Over to Burgess Hill , Joan and I in absolutely blistering heat and returned with the most enchanting (? & naughty) old bitch, tiny, pretty & gay & loving, and obviously intelligent. Called Flash, which we are in process of changing to Sophie. Basty very doubtful, but less hostile than I had suspected at this stage. Continue reading “… Sophie was a most enchanting old bitch, tiny, pretty, gay, loving and obviously intelligent … (Rosemary Sutcliff Diary, 19th June, 1989)”
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 