Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novels were specifically written for adults. In a 1986 interview she said, "I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety." She was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours.

Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. She wrote incessantly throughout her life and was still doing so on the morning of her death in 1992. Sutcliff never married and had no children.

Books

Autobiography

  • Blue Remembered Hills: A recollection (1983); Sutcliff's memoir of her childhood and young adulthood.

Other non-fiction

  • Houses and History (London: Batsford, 1960), illustrated by William Stobbs
  • Rudyard Kipling (1960), a monograph
  • Heroes and History (1965), illus. Charles Keeping
  • A Saxon Settler (People of the Past, 1965), illus. John Lawrence

Eagle of the Ninth series

The series, also referred to as 'Marcus',

  • Sun Horse, Moon Horse (1977), illus. Shirley Felts
  • Shifting Sands (1977), illus. Laslzo Acs
  • Song for a Dark Queen (1978); retells the story of Queen Boudica
  • Eagle's Egg (1981), illus. Victor Ambrus
  • Bonnie Dundee (1983), the story of John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee, and the Jacobite rising of 1689
  • Flame-coloured Taffeta (1986), illus. Rachel Birkett
  • The Roundabout Horse (1986) illus. Alan Marks
  • A Little Dog Like You (1987) illus. Jane Johnson
  • The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff (1987), illus. Charles Keeping—omnibus edition of Warrior Scarlet, The Mark of the Horse Lord, and Knight's Fee (1958–1965)
  • Little Hound Found (1989) illus. Joy Davies
  • The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup (1993, posthumous), illus. by Emma Chichester Clark; also serialised in Cricket
  • Black Ships Before Troy (1993, posth.), illus. Alan Lee; retells the Iliad story; also serialised in Cricket
  • Chess-Dream in a Garden (1993, posth.), illus. Ralph Thompson A fantasy for children inspired by the Lewis Chessmen.
  • The Wanderings of Odysseus (1995, posth.), illus. Alan Lee; retells the Odyssey story

Novels for adults

  • Lady in Waiting (1957); set in Tudor England, the story of Bess Throckmorton, wife of Sir Walter Raleigh
  • The Rider of the White Horse (1959); set during the 17th-century English Civil War, about Parliamentarian general Sir Thomas Fairfax and his wife Anne who travelled on campaign with him
  • Sword at Sunset (1963); set in sub-Roman Britain, a story of King Arthur as the Romano-Celtic warrior prince he may have been; part of The Eagle of the Ninth series
  • The Flowers of Adonis (1969); set in ancient Greece, about the brilliant but erratic Athenian general Alkibiades and the Peloponnesian War
  • Blood and Sand (1987); set during the Napoleonic Wars, based on the life of the soldier Thomas Keith.

Other works

Plays, screenplays and film

  • The New Laird. Radio play (BBC Schools Radio series Stories from Scottish History), Broadcast 17 May 1966.
  • Ghost Story. Film. Screenplay with Stephen Weeks and Philip Norman, 1974.
  • Mary Bedell. Stage play. Produced London, 1986.
  • The Eagle of the Ninth. Stage play with Mary Rensten.

Articles

  • "History Is People". A paper distributed at a conference on Children's Literature in Education, Exeter, England, 1971. Reprinted in Children and Literature: Views and Reviews, edited by Virginia Haviland, pp. 305–312 Scott, Foresman 1973, pp. 305–312
  • "Combined Ops". Junior Bookshelf 24 (July 1960):121–27. Reprinted in Egoff, Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature, 1st ed., pp. 244–48; 2d ed., pp. 284–88. Describes the process of writing Eagle of the Ninth and The Lantern Bearers.

Collected papers

In 1966 Sutcliff made a small donation to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. (In this she responded to Lena Grummond's international call for original materials to establish the Collection.)<!-- source is our Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival#Early years --> The Sutcliff Papers include a manuscript and two typescripts for the radio play The New Laird. That programme was taped 4 April 1966 and broadcast from Edinburgh on 17 May 1966 as part of the Stories from Scottish History series (BBC Radio Scotland). The collection also includes a small red composition book of research notes for The Lantern Bearers and for two unpublished works, The Amber Dolphin and The Red Dragon.

  • 1978 The Children's Rights Workshop's Other Award, Song for a Dark Queen
  • 1985 Phoenix Award, The Mark of the Horse Lord (1965)

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  • – books, TV scripts, films, TV versions and life; by her literary executor Anthony Lawton
  • Official Birth Centenary Blog; also by her literary executor Anthony Lawton
  • "Rosemary Sutcliff: An Appreciation" by Sandra Garside-Neville, first published in Solander (Journal of the Historical Novel Society), No. 8, pp.&nbsp;2–6, December 2000
  • "Of the Minstrel Kind" by Margaret Meek, a tribute to Rosemary Sutcliff at seventy published in Books for Keeps No. 64, September 1990
  • "Rosemary Sutcliff 1920–1992" at HistoricalNovels.info
  • Sutcliff's Roman Britain novels reviewed by Eric Eller at The Green Man Review – provides synopses and discusses the series in the context of place and chronological setting
  • Interview with Sutcliff on the Arthurian novel Sword at Sunset by Raymond H. Thompson, 1986], The Camelot Project, Robbins Library Digital Projects, University of Rochester
  • "Obituary: Rosemary Sutcliff", Julia Eccleshare, The Independent, 27 July 1992