Shifting Sands

by Rosemary Sutcliff

On prehistoric Orkney, the village of Skara Brae has been built among the dunes, nestled in the sand. Ruled by the tyrannical Long Axe, the villagers watch the weather and the sands, in fear of their home being buried.

Blue Feather is twelve when Long Axe declares that he wants her as his third wife. Her father is unsure, but cannot argue with the chief - when Blue Feather turns 14, she will marry Long Axe. At first she is delighted, but in the years following she becomes closer with a young warrior, Singing Dog, and doubt begins to creep in.

As Long Axe's rule becomes more volatile, and the weather more threatening, will the village stay safe? Or do they need a new chief to help them through the storms?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Rosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. She once commented that she wrote "for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."

Born in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. 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. 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. She then worked as a painter of miniatures.

Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985.

Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. She never married.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/rosema...

Reviews

[Snuggery Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was short; I read it in about an hour, to give you a sense of just how short. I almost gave it 4 stars just because of its brevity, but decided that that's not fair at all. Rosemary Sutcliff is a brilliant, sparkling historian *and* writer. She beautifully takes the cold facts of history, and brings them to life, coloring them with exciting stories, filled with believable details, so that we glimpse the times and places of her stories with a clarity and closeness that we could never get from a textbook.
This story was short and exciting,taking place in a tribe in Scotland (I believe) between 2000-1000 bc.
I have a list of Sutcliff's books that take place in Great Britain, in chronological order. This was the first on that list (pretty sure), and I am making my way through it, in a relaxed way, and not always quite in order, as a fun project/challenge.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short story that imagines what the life of a group of people living on the dangerous dunes of a shore thousands of years ago might have been like.

[Byron Bibliotherapy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this 1977 edition in the State Library of Queensland. The dust jacket states that Antelope Books target 6-9yo. Quite mature content for that age! The story was all about marriage and vying for power in a prehistoric society. A far cry from our expectations of kids today. It is a beautiful chapter book with large font and intricate pictures. I can remember reading chapter books like this in primary school in the 80s and thinking the pictures were unattractive, but being drawn in by the story.

[Carolynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short tale of a prehistoric seaside village, with a doomed romance. Sutcliff was always wonderful at tales of early England--I'd have liked this much better if the story had been more fully developed. Compare to _A Dry Bone_ by Peter Dickinson and _The Stronghold_ by Mollie Hunter.