Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel, The Silver Branch, Folio Society’s 2004 edition, is beautifully drawn by Roman Pisarev. This illustration is of little Cullen.

As Anne in comments below has highlighted, “this illustration shows the moment when Flavius and Justin present their ‘tatterdemalion’ Lost Legion, gathered together after the death of Carausius, to Constantius’ astonished Praetorian Prefect, Asklepiodotus. Among the ‘reckless disreputable crew’ is ‘little Cullen, with his Silver Branch in the girdle of his tattered motley, holding the wingless Eagle proudly upright, but standing himself on one leg like a heron,which somewhat spoiled the effect’ “.

You can buy this edition of the book  from the Folio Society’s website. There is also a stunning version of The Eagle of the Ninth, probably Rosemary Sutcliff’s most famous novel which, you can also buy here.

(To regular readers: We are republishing and developing some November and December posts because of a glitch in the system which seemed to prevent them being indexed. This post was prompted and further helped by  comments from Anne thank you!.)

Rosemary Sutcliff’s worldwide success as an author of historical fiction and children’s literature required readers and a publishing industry! Happily the presence of  ‘help desks’ in the early Medieval days of books and reading, when these represented new technologies that ‘customers’ found confusing and difficult to use, led over the centuries to the fully fledged book technologies that meant people could and do enjoy Rosemary Sutcliff’s books.