the shining company by rosemary sutcliff

I'm trying to refrain from giving away the ending, although if you read the link to the information on Y Gododdin you'll know what most of it is. This book in particular had a great beauty in its prose. But most of all, I loved Sutcliff's writing. Prosper is a likable main character, and I loved the depiction of fellowship among the company. I believe she may reference one of her other books, Frontier Wolf, at one point. Sutcliff shows a sense of lost history already present. I found it a fascinating look into the life of Britain after the Romans had left but before it was (almost) wholly conquered by the Saxons. The three hundred were called to Dyn Eidin (Edinburgh) to become a fighting force ready to take on the Saxons in the southeastern part of England. The book expands the events described in the poem Y Gododdin, mainly from the point of view of Prosper, son of Gerontius and shieldbearer to one of the three hundred heroes who make up the Shining Company. I had never read The Shining Company before but it is now high on my recommended list. In my opinion, she is simply the best of the best when it comes to historical fiction. I have a long-standing love affair with Rosemary Sutcliff. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992.

Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She then worked as a painter of miniatures. Her early schooling being continually interrupted by moving house and her disabling condition, Sutcliff didn't learn to read until she was nine, and left school at fourteen to enter the Bideford Art School, which she attended for three years, graduating from the General Art Course. Due to her chronic sickness, she spent the majority of her time with her mother, a tireless storyteller, from whom she learned many of the Celtic and Saxon legends that she would later expand into works of historical fiction. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life.

She once commented that she wrote 'for children of all ages, from nine to ninety.'īorn in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults.

Rosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction.

The shining company by rosemary sutcliff