Tag: quotes

Rosemary Sutcliff book The Mark of the Horse Lord

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Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Mark of the Horse Lord, a historical novel with illustrations by Charles Keeping, is loved by many people, including Channing Tatum, star of the film of The Eagle of the Ninth.

He hadn’t understood it, then.  He did not really understand now–his head only knew that when it had to be one or the other, there was not much else you could do but pay away your own life for the Tribe’s.  But something deep within him understood that it was not only among those who had followed the dark, ancient ways of the Earth Mother that the King died for the People; only among the Sun People the King himself chose when the time was come. (From The Mark of the Horse Lord, quoted by The Children’s Book Quote of the Day

Rosemary Sutcliff started school at ten, left at fourteen, but was a lifelong learner

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Rosemary Sutcliff, distinguished writer of children’s books and historical fiction, was rightly described as ‘impish’ and ‘irreverent’ by The Guardian when she died. But partly because she was playful, she was a learner all her life.

“When the playful me shows up, I am ready to be a serious learner … a culture of playfulness is closely related to the capacity to learn.”

Rosemary Sutcliff on English Civil War children’s book, historical novel Simon 1953

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Rosemary Sutcliff said about the historical accuracy of her children’s book Simon written early in her career in 1953, set in the English Civil War of the 17th century:

“Most history books deal with the final campaign of the civil war in a single paragraph, and the Battle of Torrington they seldom mention at all. In this story I have tried to show what that final campaign in the west was like, and to re-fight the battles fought over my own countryside. Most of the people I’ve written about really lived; Torrington Church really did blow up, with 200 Royalist prisoners and their Parliamentary Guard inside, and no one has ever known how it happened, though Chaplain Joshua Sprigg left it on record that the deed was done by ‘one Watts, a desperate villain’ “.

Rosemary Sutcliff loved The Eagle of the Ninth hero Marcus now played by Channing Tatum in the new film

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth, published in 1954 only four years into her forty-year writing career, was one of Rosemary Sutcliff’s favourite historical novels. It is now being made lovingly into a film by producer Duncan Kenworthy, director Kevin Macdonald and writer Jeremy Brock, with Channing Tatum as Marcus, and Jamie Bell as his slave Esca.

“I rather wish it weren’t (a favourite) because it is quite early. I think and hope I have written better since. But it is my best beloved. Part of me was Marcus, and part was in love with him”.

The Fate of Princes in Rome and Leicester

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Rosemary Sutcliff reading ex-Leader of Leicester City Council, Ross Willmott, quoted Roman Marcus Aurelius as he stepped down:

“It is the fate of princes to be ill thought of for well doing”.