The Genesis of The Witch's Brat

[hedgebird]

In a reprint edition of Rosemary Sutcliff's medieval novel The Witch's Brat there's a little piece explaining how the book came to be written:

"Rosemary Sutcliff says she first met Rahere, King Henry I's jester, in Rudyard Kipling's Rewards and Fairies. 'I was about six years old at the time, and have loved him dearly ever since.' She always knew that she would write about him herself one day, and this feeling increased after a visit to his tomb in the church of St Bartholomew the Great in London's Smithfield, close beside the hospital he founded. For years the project remained unfulfilled, until the Church of England Children's Society asked her to write a serial for their magazine. Wondering what she would write about, 'I suddenly realized the time had come to tell the story of the King's Jester who turned to God and founded the great hospital of St Bartholomew. Lovel, the boy who follows at Rahere's heels, came into my head, and of course the book is really his story; but it is Rahere's story too.'

"The Witch's Brat was originally written as a serial, and later re-written to make a novel, since 'it had peaks at the end of each instalment and was all the wrong shape for a book.' It was first published as a book in 1970."

It would be interesting to read this magazine serial version and see the differences from the book. Letter 51 of the Toronto Public Library's Rosemary Sutcliff fonds mentions the serial story on 24 April 1968. But I haven't been able to find out much about this Children's Society magazine (it may have been called Gateway ?)

Any fans of The Witch's Brat about?