MANY Sutcliff things.

[bunn]

I can't remember if I posted before about the sutcliff-swap fanwork exchange.  Or indeed if anyone reading this who doesn't already know about it is likely to be interested in it. But on the offchance, I shall tell you that it has happened!

And suddenly there is a pile of Sutcliff fanfic and art here : http://archiveofourown.org/collections/sutcliff_swap2012/works  and I haven't seen one item yet that isn't full of interesting ideas and strikingly well executed, Except the two things I wrote which obviously I love with a hungry passion because I wrote them but have sod-all idea if they are any good or not. So it goes. At the moment it is all Anon: creator reveal is next week. 

 There are SEVEN Lantern Bearers stories, which pleases me hugely, as Lantern Bearers and Sword at Sunset are tied for my Favorite Sutcliff ever.  Actually they may even be tied for my Favorite Historical Novel Ever, and given that I don't generally do favourites, it's nice to have a decision on at least one kind of favorite book. 

 I was given Sun in the Courtyard - it is about Ambrosius,   And it has a lurcher in it!  These two things would make me love it even if it wasn't well written and cunningly researched, but it is those things too.     


All the works are from the ninth century or earlier, which reflects my Sutcliff reading so far too - she does Roman and post-Roman Britain so well, I'd originally intended to stick to those (and read at least some of the other authors on my to-read shelf).   But philmophlegm has been shopping and has bought me a pile of her later works, so it looks like I am going to read ALL the Sutcliffs... 

In the new pile:


The Capricorn Bracelet
The Armourer's House
Brother Dusty-Feet
The High Deeds of Finn McCool
Lady in Waiting
Flame Coloured Taffeta
The Witch's Brat
Bonnie Dundee
Black Ships before Troy
And a rather nice Story of the Odyssey, very lavishly illustrated by Alan Lee. 

I don't think I've read any of these before, though I have found with Sutcliff that I think I've not read quite a few things that turn out to be hauntingly familiar on re-reading. 

Comments

[seascribe.livejournal.com]

Oh, I adore The Capricorn Bracelet. Haven't read any of the others, because I just really love the Roman and post-Roman Britain stuff, and can't muster any interest in the rest.

YAY Sutcliff Swap! I didn't know you wrote two; I was unable to ID the other one, which surprises me. Possibly I have not yet read it?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

You and Sutcliff are the Anti-Saxon Twins :-D

*checks* - yes you have read it, you left a kudos... Ha, I am successfully anon!

[hedgebird.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! I haven't read the Odyssey or Finn MacCool ones, and have no one to discuss the others with!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I forgot Blood and Sand, which has been lurking on a shelf for a while waiting for me to get to it...

I am most excited about The Witch's Brat - it sounds quite reminiscent of Kipling's Norman tales which I do love, specially the one with Rahere the King's Jester and old Harold, who always makes me cry.

[hedgebird.livejournal.com]

...Man, you're reminding me guiltily of all the real books going unread while I mostly mess about reading badfic. The protagonist of TWB reminds me a bit of Justin from The Silver Branch.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's kind of great though too, isn't it? So nice to have a pile of books waiting rather than that tired provincial-library feeling I remember growing up, where you've read all the things in the library that you actually want to read and end up taking out the same books twice...

Lovel is a bit Justin-like, and not just in his choice of career. I can see the direct parallels with her own experiences in hospital recounted in Blue Remembered Hills too. Was kind of sad that she didn't give us more Rahere though - it's another of those books where the protagonist mysteriously forms a lifelong attachment to someone very quickly and it's a little hard to quite work out why.

[hedgebird.livejournal.com]

True! I remember that feeling all too well...

Agreed, too, about Blue Remembered Hills.

She usually keeps the real people at arms' length, and I wonder how much she relied on the reader already knowing their histories and finding them compelling... I can readily accept that some people will be eternally faithful to the first person who shows them a scrap of kindness, or whatever the attraction is - and perhaps she was one herself - but I do wish she'd give a little more insight into the process.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I wonder if she was assuming (either unthinkingly, or deliberately) that most people would have read Rewards and Fairies, so would be already familiar with Rahere?

I can see why Lovel might fall in love with Kipling's Rahere - and from the description, I am sure she means it to be the same character: what little seems to be available about Rahere as a historical character is less angsty, and the physical descriptions are similar too.

[marycatelli]

Yes, actually, you have. You mentioned problems you were having some posts, and we talked about Anglo-Saxon Invasion period in the comments.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Arg, sorry, my poor phrasing! I definitely asked about what I was writing, and got some HUGELY helpful comments and resources, I'd just forgotten if I'd actually said what I was writing it for... (though now I have gone and checked, I did mention it. Probably could have checked that before...)

[purplecat]

I didn't know you had written two. I saw the list go up on sutcliff_fics and downloaded a few that caught my eye including a guess-from-summary the one I thought you might have written. Not `Sun in the Courtyard' though. I may go back and have a second look and see if I can work out which may be your second.

I've read Capricorn Bracelet which (IIRC is still pretty much Roman and post-Roman Britain and pretty similar in concept to the Aquila family books). I recently read the Armourer's House to G with, I would say, mixed results - the description passages were really a bit long to hold her attention but it is a largely domestic story about a little girl which are always major pluses in her eyes. Bonnie Dundee was, for years, my favourite Sutcliff, though I have no idea how it would bear up to scrutiny these days. I've also read Lady in Waiting which I though rather more adult than many of her other works and, I think, The Witch's Brat about which I recall nothing.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I'm going to dive into Bonnie Dundee next, will report back if I can think of something coherent to say about it.

The Witch's Brat is the Norman one about the boy with a gift for healing who is stoned out of his home village because he is crooked (she does love to have heroes with disabilities!). He eventually fetches up at hospital at Smithfield in London which is just being built. I can see why it might not have left a deep impression though, as the plot is a bit traily-off - the drama is good to start with, but then once Lovel the protagonist's healing skills are recognised it doesn't quite seem to go anywhere new.