Rosemary Sutcliff told one interviewer in the early 1960s:

‘I get down to what I enjoy much more, recreating the daily life of the people: the sort of houses they lived in, how they were furnished, what food they ate and how it was cooked, what they grew in their gardens, how they travelled, their clothes and weapons, and, very important from my point of view, what songs they sang and what stories they told round the fire at night.’

Source: Meek, M., 1962. Rosemary Sutcliff (Bodley Head, London). p 13.