The The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature from 2006 has a long entry on Rosemary Sutcliff. It suggests that The Mark of the Horse Lord (published in 1966) is her finest historical fiction in the eyes of many people.
Rosemary Sutcliff’s finest historical novel and ‘masterpiece’ is The Mark of the Horse Lord, suggests Oxford The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature
24/12/20152015 by Anthony Lawton
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rosemary sutcliff
"An impish ... irreverent writer of genius" (The Guardian)
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- The 1997 Encyclopedia of Fantasy view on eminent award-winnng British writer Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92) | “An imagination … powerful enough to create startling pictures of what could have been.
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the guardian newspaper in praise of rosemary sutcliff
Rosemary Sutcliff's 1954 children's classic The Eagle of the Ninth (still in print more than 50 years on) is the first of a series of novels in which Sutcliff, who died in 1992, explored the cultural borderlands between the Roman and the British worlds – "a place where two worlds met without mingling" as she describes the British town to which Marcus, the novel's central character, is posted.
Marcus is a typical Sutcliff hero, a dutiful Roman who is increasingly drawn to the British world of "other scents and sights and sounds; pale and changeful northern skies and the green plover calling". This existential cultural conflict gets even stronger in later books like The Lantern Bearers and Dawn Wind, set after the fall of Rome, and has modern resonance. But Sutcliff was not just a one-trick writer.
The range of her novels spans from the Bronze Age and Norman England to the Napoleonic wars. Two of her best, The Rider of the White Horse and Simon, are set in the 17th century and are marked by Sutcliff's unusually sympathetic (for English historical novelists of her era) treatment of Cromwell and the parliamentary cause. Sutcliff's finest books find liberal-minded members of elites wrestling with uncomfortable epochal changes. From Marcus Aquila to Simon Carey, one senses, they might even have been Guardian readers.
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Hi Anthony – happily you’ve already done this in the past – nothing like a bit of recycling :) Unfortunately, though, Eric Eller’s excellent article about the Dolphin Ring Cycle in the context of actual historical events has somehow diappeared.
https://therosemarysutcliffarchive.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/eight-historical-novels-by-rosemary-sutcliff-feature-the-same-dolphin-signet-ring/
Also of interest is Charles Cunther’s work about Sutcliff’s Dark Age novels, available to read in 2 parts on the “Blu Remebered Hills” website (see link below) Like Gunther, I’ve always been taken by the fact that although Rosemary Sutcliffe is on record as saying that she never originally had it in mind to write a “Dolphin Ring” series, she wrote the first (“Eagle of the Ninth” and last (“Shield Song” )in the series one after the other.
http://blueremembered.blogspot.co.nz/2005/06/dark-age-novels-of-rosemary-sutcliff.html
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I am trying to create a “timeline” for Sutcliff books which include the dolphin ring so that my grandson can follow the history of Romans in Britain. Has anyone tracked this iconic symbol throughout her extensive collection?
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I’ll try to write one for you – but can’t do it until after boxing day! Anyone else able to help?
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Mr. Lawton, I’m sure you will become aware of the issue soon. It appears that this website has been hacked and keeps posted inappropriate ads. Links to them are also appearing on your Twitter. Please take action to stop this from happening again. I really care about Rosemary Sutcliff’s work and I want to keep following the website.
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I am so sorry. Thanks for writing: I have only just caught up with this after Xmas Day and Boxing Day. I have indeed been hacked and am trying to stop it. I hope successfully.
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