Tag: writing

The spellbinding storytelling in the historical novels of Rosemary Sutcliff

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Margaret Meek paid tribute to Rosemary Sutcliff in her 70th year with an insightful reflection on her personality and her work. (Margaret Meek wrote a monograph about Rosemary Sutcliff in the 1960s).

The sharing of storytelling that writers do with readers is the dialogue of imagination. Rosemary Sutcliff lives, grows and acts and suffers in her stories. The worlds created in her imagination have had to stand in for the world of much everyday actuality. From her therefore we can learn what the imagination does, and how it allows us all to explore what’s possible, the realm of virtual experience. Read More »

King Arthur almost killed Rosemary Sutcliff, author of The Sword at Sunset | Letter to Helen Hollick

Anthony LawtonLeave a comment

Historical novelist and children's author Rosemary Sutcliff's signatureRosemary Sutcliff was an inspiration for author Helen Hollick, who was well aware of the place of the dolphin signet-ring in Rosemary’s Roman novels, as well as the dolphin in her signature. In her novel  Harold the King (entitled I am the Chosen King in the USA) captain of Harold II’s fleet was Eadric, later arrested and imprisoned by Duke William after the English defeat. In her acknowledgements she wrote: ‘The books by the late Rosemary Sutcliff, an historical fiction author sadly missed, have always been an inspiration to me. Her last novel brought the feel of the sea and those beautiful – but deadly – Viking longships to life. As a small personal tribute to her gift of storytelling, Eadric the Steersman’s ship, The Dolphin, is for her.’

I first encountered Rosemary Sutcliff at school when I was about 14. Our English mistress, Mrs Llewellyn, was a real dragon. We were, on the whole, terrified of her. It must have been towards the end of term, I assume she had covered the Curriculum (such as it was back in 1966/7) for we trooped into class and she announced, ‘Settle down, I am going to read you a story for the next few lessons’.

Sitting there, listening enraptured to that story (The Queen Elizabeth Story) my delight was complete. Until then I had basically only read pony stories (I so wanted a pony of my own) but Rosemary Sutcliff transported me into another world of the enchanted past. I had no idea a novel without a single equine in it could be so utterly engrossing.

…

I eventually plucked up courage to write to Rosemary to tell her I was working on an Arthurian novel, how her writing had inspired me, and how the character of Arthur was almost possessing me at times. To my delight I received a letter back, written in her own, somewhat unsteady handwriting – she did, after all have arthritic hands. This is part of what she wrote:
“I do hope all goes well with your King Arthur – I know just how you feel about him, he almost killed me when I was writing “Sword at Sunset”. His demands made me take work to bed with me, work till the small hours, and wake up at 6 am still thinking about him and planning the day’s work. And when the book was at last finished, having spent two years thinking and feeling as a man, and that particular man, it took me six weeks to get back inside my own skin again.
With all good wishes

Don’t implement promises but keep them | Advice from C. S. Lewis on writing

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

The serendipitous ‘Letters of Note’ blog publishes ‘correspondence deserving of a wider audience’. It introduced a C S Lewis letter withe the comment that “what’s admirable is that he attempted to reply to each and every one of those pieces of fan mail, and not just with a generic, impersonal line “. So too did Rosemary Sutcliff, although I only have a couple of examples. (There must be several thousand out in the world in draws and treasure boxes). Lewis’s advice to a Narnia fan about writing was:

What really matters is:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”

5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Source: Letters of Note: C. S. Lewis on Writing.

Day of letting back hair down (Diary, 4/4/88)

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

April 4th, Easter Monday. Ray went out to fetch Heather and got her back safely a while before lunch time. Pleasant day of talk and letting back hair down.

© Anthony Lawton 2012

The old expression ‘Let one’s back hair down’ became ‘Let one’s hair down’. ‘Back hair’ was the common 19th century phrase for the long hair at the back of a woman’s head. Unpinning it and releasing the weight was a way of making yourself comfortable in informal situations. (From commenter Anne).

Rosemary Sutcliff’s Sword at Sunset is in first-person singular

Anthony Lawton2 Comments

Original Hardback cover Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset Arthurian historical novel

When I started writing Sword at Sunset I made at least three false starts, but I couldn’t think what was the matter. I knew exactly what the story was that I wanted to tell, but it wouldn’t come. Then suddenly the penny dropped: it had to be first-person singular. I had never done first-person singular before, but the moment I started doing it that way it came, like a bird. But I had problems with it: first-person singular is very different from third-person writing, and I had no experience of it at all. But it was the only way it could be written.

Source: Raymond Thompson | Taliesin’s Successors: Interviews with Authors of Modern Arthurian Literature