Rosemary Sutcliff

Rosemary Sutcliff CBE (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was a British novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. In a 1986 interview she said, "I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety." Some of her novels were specifically written for adults.

Ms. Sutcliff had several editors during her long writing career which produced over 60 books. One of her editors wrote the following appreciation (on AncientWorlds.net):

(Rosemary Sutcliff) had, as did Henry Treece, a mystical communion with the past, which enabled her both to recreate tiny details, and to confound military historians with her understanding of the art of battle in any situation she cared to devise. Her sense of place was uncanny, in that she could get no nearer to a site than the seat of a car on an adjacent road. Friends often served as her eyes, and also as her researchers, but it was the conclusions she drew from the evidence, and her re-creations of them, that made her contribution to the literature about the ancient world so distinctive. Where she was simply embellishing recorded history, she was no better than anyone else. She also had one of the rudest senses of humour in anyone I have met.”

Her many books include Beowulf: Dragon Slayer, The Hound of Ulster, The High Deeds of Finn MacCool, Tristan and Iseult, Sun Horse Moon Horse, The Sword and the Circle, The Light Beyond the Forest, and The Road to Camlann. She was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 1959 for The Lantern Bearers, and was runner-up with Tristan and Iseult in 1972. In 1975 she was awarded an OBE for services to children's literature and was one of the recipients of The Other Award in 1978.

Careful reading of the historical fiction reveals that the same Dolphin Ring with a dolphin design on a flawed emerald was the Flavius family signet ring which threads through eight of her novels: The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, Frontier Wolf, The Lantern Bearers, Sword at Sunset, Dawn Wind, Sword Song, & The Shield Ring.