Thinking of readers, I remember, with gratitude and some pain, a class of girls in a London secondary school in the early seventies. The parents of most of them had come from the Caribbean; I guess their own children are now in school. Then they were the first of their kind to speak out their awareness of the complications we now call `multi-cultural’. They were reading with their gifted teacher, Joan Goody, The Eagle of the Ninth (by Rosemary Sutcliff). On this particular day they ignored the dashing young Roman hero, recovering from a battle wound in his uncle’s house in Bath, and concentrated on the girl next door, Cottia, a Briton. Cottia’s uncle and aunt were taking her to the games, and in their hankering after Roman ways had tried to insist that she wear Roman clothes and speak Latin. Cottia protested, and so did the readers, on her behalf. I’ve never heard a more spirited discussion than that one, when those girls spoke indirectly of their nearest concerns in arguing on behalf of Cottia, who existed only in a book.
Category: The Eagle of the Ninth Book
The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff | Favourite books of Philip Reeve
The Eagle of the Ninth and Warrior Scarlet by Rosemary Sutcliff (are one of my favourite books) … 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 »
Ben Kane, historical novelist, favourite author Rosemary Sutcliff | Interview in The Independent
Choose a favourite author, and say why you admire her/him
Rosemary Sutcliff. I was probably no older than nine or ten when I read ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ and it had a huge influence on me; it’s one of the reasons I ended up writing about Rome. I was so struck by her imagery of Hadrian’s Wall and the wilds of Scotland, and the idea of the soldiers disappearing there.
via One Minute With: Ben Kane, historical novelist | The Independent.
The ‘Inside A Dog’ blog enthuses about old favourite Rosemary Sutcliff
Groucho Marx once said: ‘Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read!’. Hence one blog about books: Inside a Dog. The blog’s author recently caught up with The Eagle film in Australia, which prompted him to enthuse about Rosemary Sutcliff “all over again”.
Today I finally got to see the movie based on Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle Of The Ninth. That’s made me think about her books all over again – I love them! I think she’s the greatest writer of historical fiction for children and teens in the twentieth century. In fact, judging by what I’ve read in the last eleven years, maybe the best of this century too.
Source: Rosemary Sutcliff – an old favourite | Inside A Dog.
Lindsey Davis’s Top Ten Roman books includes The Eagle of the Ninth | The Guardian
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff was in Lindsey Davis’s top ten Roman books in The Guardian in February 2009. Davis has written the Falco Roman detective novels.
“Somewhere about the year 117AD, the Ninth Legion, which was stationed at Eboracum, where York now stands, marched north to deal with a rising among the Caledonian tribes, and was never heard of again.” Hooked? If not, there’s no hope for you. A wonderful novel, for children of all ages.
The full list of books was:
- Daily Life in Ancient Rome by Jérôme Carcopino
- Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome by Lesley Adkins and Roy A Adkins
- Rome and Her Empire by Barry Cunliffe
- Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide by Amanda Claridge
- The Colosseum by Keith Hopkins and Mary Beard
- Ancient Inventions by Peter James and Nick Thorpe
- The Lost World of Pompeii by Colin Amery and Brian Curran Jr
- Roman Britain by Keith Branigan.
- The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
- I, Claudius by Robert Graves
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 