The Armourer's House
A brand new edition of the classic children’s book by Rosemary Sutcliff. First published in 1951 and now re-issued by Manderley Press, with an introduction by Lara Maiklem and a specially commissioned front cover and illustrations by Isabel Greenberg.
“The house where they all lived was in a narrow street so close to the river that they could smell the mud when the tide was out, and so close to Black Friars’ Monastery that they could hear the chapel bell ringing to prayers all through the day.”
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote books for those aged 9 to 90, and is perhaps most well-known for her meticulously researched historical novels for children, offering generations of readers a “magic carpet into the past”.
In this book, Tamsyn, nearly nine, leaves her sleepy Devon town by the sea for a new life in sixteenth-century London. She arrives at her uncle’s home on the River Thames, and is immediately enchanted by the brightly painted carved blue dolphins that adorn it.
The ships and river traffic passing Dolphin House – including the royal barge carrying King Henry VIII and his new Queen Anne Boleyn – feed Tamsyn’s imagination and her dreams of going to sea for a life of voyage and discovery. But as she soon finds out, adventure and excitement can also be found closer to home in Tudor London.
“History can be brought to life through the tiniest of objects and the smallest of details, and Rosemary Sutcliff was an expert in this.”
Lara Maiklem, author of the Sunday Times best-seller ‘Mudlarking’
A brand new edition of the classic children’s book by Rosemary Sutcliff. First published in 1951 and now re-issued by Manderley Press, with an introduction by Lara Maiklem and a specially commissioned front cover and illustrations by Isabel Greenberg.
“The house where they all lived was in a narrow street so close to the river that they could smell the mud when the tide was out, and so close to Black Friars’ Monastery that they could hear the chapel bell ringing to prayers all through the day.”
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote books for those aged 9 to 90, and is perhaps most well-known for her meticulously researched historical novels for children, offering generations of readers a “magic carpet into the past”.
In this book, Tamsyn, nearly nine, leaves her sleepy Devon town by the sea for a new life in sixteenth-century London. She arrives at her uncle’s home on the River Thames, and is immediately enchanted by the brightly painted carved blue dolphins that adorn it.
The ships and river traffic passing Dolphin House – including the royal barge carrying King Henry VIII and his new Queen Anne Boleyn – feed Tamsyn’s imagination and her dreams of going to sea for a life of voyage and discovery. But as she soon finds out, adventure and excitement can also be found closer to home in Tudor London.
“History can be brought to life through the tiniest of objects and the smallest of details, and Rosemary Sutcliff was an expert in this.”
Lara Maiklem, author of the Sunday Times best-seller ‘Mudlarking’
A brand new edition of the classic children’s book by Rosemary Sutcliff. First published in 1951 and now re-issued by Manderley Press, with an introduction by Lara Maiklem and a specially commissioned front cover and illustrations by Isabel Greenberg.
“The house where they all lived was in a narrow street so close to the river that they could smell the mud when the tide was out, and so close to Black Friars’ Monastery that they could hear the chapel bell ringing to prayers all through the day.”
Rosemary Sutcliff wrote books for those aged 9 to 90, and is perhaps most well-known for her meticulously researched historical novels for children, offering generations of readers a “magic carpet into the past”.
In this book, Tamsyn, nearly nine, leaves her sleepy Devon town by the sea for a new life in sixteenth-century London. She arrives at her uncle’s home on the River Thames, and is immediately enchanted by the brightly painted carved blue dolphins that adorn it.
The ships and river traffic passing Dolphin House – including the royal barge carrying King Henry VIII and his new Queen Anne Boleyn – feed Tamsyn’s imagination and her dreams of going to sea for a life of voyage and discovery. But as she soon finds out, adventure and excitement can also be found closer to home in Tudor London.
“History can be brought to life through the tiniest of objects and the smallest of details, and Rosemary Sutcliff was an expert in this.”
Lara Maiklem, author of the Sunday Times best-seller ‘Mudlarking’
Introduction - Lara Maiklem
Mudlarker, time-traveller, writer - Lara Maiklem is the award-winning author of the Sunday Times bestseller Mudlarking (2019) and A Field Guide to Larking (2021). She grew up on her family’s farm in the countryside, then moved to London where she has been mudlarking along the river Thames for almost 20 years. Previously an editor and a publishing consultant, Lara’s thoughtful writing as an historian has captivated readers, revealing the pleasure she finds in the minutiae of her surroundings, and uncovering the real history of London and its people through the objects she discovers on the banks of the river.
I: @london.mudlark / T: @LondonMudlark / F: @LondonMudlark
Illustrator - Isabel Greenberg
Isabel Greenberg is a London-based illustrator and writer, and the author of three acclaimed graphic novels: The Encyclopedia Of Early Earth (2015), The One Hundred Nights Of Hero (2017) and her latest publication - a graphic-not-quite-biography of the Brontës - Glass Town (2020). She has illustrated several children’s books, and is currently working on her own picture book. Isabel studied illustration at the University of Brighton and has an MA in animation from the Royal College of Art. She is a lecturer at Camberwell College of Arts, UAL.
isabelgreenberg.co.uk / I: @isabel_greenberg/ T: @isabelgreenberg
