Rosemary Sutcliff

An internationally renowned British author of the 20th century, Rosemary Sutcliff was born in East Clanden, Surrey, England in 1920, and died in Walberton, West Sussex in 1992. When she was very young, her father, an officer in the Royal Navy, was transferred to Malta. Severely disabled by Stills disease, she was home-schooled by her mother, and in the process was introduced to Celtic and Saxon legends. It was not until she and her mother returned to England in 1930 that she learned to read. In 1934, she entered Bideford Art School in Devon, England and attended for three years, finishing the General Art Course. Having been a painter of miniatures, in 1946 she began to write for publication, retelling legends that her mother had introduced her to as a young child. She received her first commission for a children's version of the Robin Hood legend from the Oxford University Press in 1950. With well over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children and adults. Her first novel, THE QUEEN ELIZABETH STORY was published in 1950. In 1959 she won the prestigious Carnegie Medal with THE LANTERN BEARERS, and in 1972 TRISTAN AND ISEULT was runner-up. Her version of the story of Arthur, SWORD AT SUNSET, for adults was top of the bestseller list in the UK. In 1978 SONG FOR A DARK QUEEN won the Other Award for radical women's fiction. Rosemary lived for many years in Walberton, Sussex with her dogs. In 1975, she was awarded the OBE for services to Children's Literature. She was awarded the CBE in the year of a death.