{"id":2310,"date":"2023-01-09T16:44:22","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T21:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ivyrun.com\/inanotherplace\/?p=2310"},"modified":"2023-01-09T16:45:20","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T21:45:20","slug":"todays-word-tatterdemalion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ivyrun.com\/inanotherplace\/?p=2310","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Word: Tatterdemalion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Author Rosemary Sutcliff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As part of a LibraryThing (LT) challenge related to reading British authors, I have been working through Rosemary Sutcliff<\/a>‘s Roman Britain Trilogy. In The Silver Branch<\/em>, the second book, she uses the word “tatterdemalion” several times. From context, it was easy to guess at the definition provided by Merriam Webster<\/a>: ragged or disreputable in appearance. I also discovered that it is the name of a character in the Marvel comic series<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a bit of time poking around the Internet to learn more about the author. My favorite find was that Rosemary Sutcliff has a fandom Wiki site<\/a>. I had never heard of her before–that’s part of the reason I do the LT challenges as they get me out of my comfort zone–but others certainly had. I was a bit surprised to learn that the books, which feature plenty of bloodshed and death, were written for children. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the Wiki, I was led to her memorial Twitter site<\/a> kept in her honor by a god child. The first tweet was a quoted retweet of one of those gorgeous library pictures of multiple levels of books. The poster agreed it was beautiful but pointed out its drawbacks and I like this god child already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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yes. Beautiful \u2026. BUT children (& adults) with disabilities like reheumatoid-arthritis smitten Rosemary Sutcliff would never have been able to access books up those stairs\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/GKqwFytjNF<\/a><\/p>— Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-92) (@rsutcliff) January 9, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>