Quote from Rosemary Sutcliff’s award-winning historical novel The Lantern Bearers

For a moment they stood looking at each other in the firelight, while the old harper still fingered the shining strings and the other man looked on with a gleam of amusement lurking in his watery blue eyes. But Aquila was not looking at him. He was looking only at the dark young man, seeing that he was darker even than he had thought at first, and slightly built in a way that went with the darkness, as though maybe the old blood, the blood of the People of the Hills, ran strong in him. But his eyes, under brows as straight as a raven’s flight-pinions, were not the eyes of the little Dark People, which were black and unstable and full of dreams, but a pale clear grey, lit with gold, that gave the effect of flame behind them.
from The Lantern Bearers, quoted at Goodreads

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet recommended by bestselling author Philip Reeve

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet have been listed by writer Philip Reeve as two of his favourite books, defined as ‘the books which mattered most to me while I was growing up … (which are) well worth tracking down’!.

…or I could have chosen Knight’s Fee, or The Lantern Bearers, or Sun-horse, Moon-horse, or Frontier Wolf… Rosemary Sutcliff is one of my favourite children’s authors, and I doubt she ever wrote a bad book, but these were the two I liked best when I was growing up. Read More »

STOP PRESS The Eagle of the Ninth film tie-in edition published by OUP

Rosemary Sutcliff’s bestselling historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth was first published by Oxford University Press in 1954. Today a special paperback version, tied-in to the film The Eagle, is published. See and buy it here on the OUP site; or here at Amazon in the UK. or here in the USA.

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth as a BBC TV drama 1977

Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novel The Eagle of the Ninth was made into a BBC TV drama series in 1977.  (It is now about to be a film or movie, The Eagle). Made  by BBC Scotland, the TV series was  broadcast between 4th September and 9th  October 1977. Rosemary Sutcliff loved the series, and she kept a photo of Marcus (Anthony Higgins) by her writing desk in Sussex. Here is some detail: Read More »

Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth into costumes for film The Eagle

Rosemary Sutcliff’s imaginings – and those of the the film-making experts – for  The Eagle of the Ninth are translated into costumes for the film The Eagle. Those involved speak about it here.