Rosemary Sutcliffe was a historical fiction writer who wrote for both children and adults. Many of her novels were based in Romano British Britain, during the Roman occupation or after it. I have liked her because her work included a well known Arthurian novel, Sword at Sunset. Her hero, Arthur or Artos, is fighting against the Saxons who are trying to take over Britain. Unlike more recent writers from the 1980s onward, she concentrates on Arthur himself, as a soldier and king.. and she is less concerned with the women of the saga.
Sutcliff's novel does involve an incestous relationship between Arthur and his half sister Ygerna, though he does not know she is his sister. He then marries Guenhumara, (Guenevere) but their marriage becomes unhappy after their baby dies and Arthur cannot make love to her. She turns to Bedwyr, Arthur's friend for consolation.
Rosemary Sutcliffe was born in 1920 in Surrey, but had an illness which confined her to a wheelchair a lot of the time. Her father was in the army and she was brought up by her mother who told her a lot of the Celtic legends that she worked into her stories.
She was devoted to her work; she never married or had children, and died in 1992, still writing.
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