Rosemary Sutcliff CBE 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.
With over 50 books to her credit, including her autobiography Blue Remembered Hills, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children, young adults and as she put it, all children aged 8 to 88. Over a million copies of The Eagle of the Ninth have been published, and her books translated into over twenty languages.
In 1959 she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers. (In 1972 she was runner-up for Tristan and Iseult). Her version of the story of King Arthur, Sword at Sunset which was written for adults was top of the bestseller list in the UK. In 1978 Song for a Dark Queen won The Other Award for radical non-sexist women’s fiction – which much surprised her.
In 1975, the Queen appointed her OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for services to children’s literature. In 1992 – the year she died – she was promoted to a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire). She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1982, and was for a period a member of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters.
