Rosemary Sutcliff‘s 1954 children’s classic The Eagle of the Ninth (still in print more than 50 years on) is the first of a series of novels in which Sutcliff, who died in 1992, explored the cultural borderlands between the Roman and the British worlds – “a place where two worlds met without mingling” as she describes the British town to which Marcus, the novel’s central character, is posted.
Marcus is a typical Sutcliff hero, a dutiful Roman who is increasingly drawn to the British world of “other scents and sights and sounds; pale and changeful northern skies and the green plover calling”. This existential cultural conflict gets even stronger in later books like The Lantern Bearers and Dawn Wind, set after the fall of Rome, and has modern resonance. But Sutcliff was not just a one-trick writer.
The range of her novels spans from the Bronze Age and Norman England to the Napoleonic wars. Two of her best, The Rider of the White Horse and Simon, are set in the 17th century and are marked by Sutcliff’s unusually sympathetic (for English historical novelists of her era) treatment of Cromwell and the parliamentary cause. Sutcliff’s finest books find liberal-minded members of elites wrestling with uncomfortable epochal changes. From Marcus Aquila to Simon Carey, one senses, they might even have been Guardian readers.
Michael Rosen commented on this editorial:
Interesting that she was writing about the end of an empire at the end of…er…an empire. And does the search for the lost legion echo/refract Conrad’s Heart of Darkness?
Some of us drank in The Eagle of the Ninth two ways: once as a BBC Children’s Hour serial and second time as the book. I can remember hurrying to get home to hear it – moody, dangerous, mysterious – a quest for something real but long gone, a possible solution to an unsolved story…and somehow it had something to do with events that happened a long time ago just where you walked when we were on holiday: on moors, or on wet fields where we were camping. The book made a connection for me between a past and that particular present.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
Just finished watching “The Eagle” on Comcast’s Movies on Demand. Throughout this film the name Rosemary Sutcliff kept coming to mind. I remember her books set in Roman Britain with great fondness from my childhood, and it was with real delight to discover her name in the film’s ending credits.
I really enjoyed the film; the production values from costumes to locations were rich in period detail. If you’ve not seen the film, give yourself a midsummer treat and buy it. I know I will add this to our home viewing collection.
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Hi, Anthony! I am pleased to report a big Eagle tie-in display of Rosemary’s books in the window of the OUP bookshop in Oxford’s High Street, with a 20% off offer.
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Excellent – thank for alerting me!
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Is the BBC radio show available?
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The Comment column in the Church Times, of all places, is all about The Eagle of the Ninth this week as well! It’s written by Simon Parke, and starts with the quotation: “Since I am a writer, not a historian, I will choose a good story over absolute historical accuracy.”
He goes on to talk about the archaeological evidence for what happened to the Ninth (or the lack of it) and finishes his piece:
“Sometimes, mystery is more gripping than fact, and loss more wondering than gain.”
He has a website at http://www.simonparke.com
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Indeed it is … And there was Romie (as I knew her) determined to read The Telegraph…
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Marcus Aquila, a Guardian reader! Now that’s an image to think about…
Some great articles and reviews of the film over the last few days, Anthony.
One day until I get to see it…
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