Eagle Of The Ninth

[Pertinax]

I am re-reading this book after many years, Prof Ward-Perkins named it as one of three books that evoked the spirit and reality of Roman life ( especially here in Britain) . It is strictly a childs book , ignore that and read it .It gives flesh to the bones of a half forgotten past, it brings ghosts out of the ground , it is a great story of fidelity and honourable activity,affecting and uplifting.

This took me right back to being a gawping kid in short trousers staring north from Hadrian's Wall , waiting for half imagined Picts to materialise out of the mists.I cant spoil the story by re-telling any part of it here, but this is a great read to set alongside much sterner technical stuff and esoteric theoretical works. Sutcliff seems to have reached straight to a point where a child's imagination ( or an adult remembering childhood's vivid imaginings) is sparked without effort.

In some ways this is a retreat to a simpler type of "old fashioned" storytelling , sophists might say its plot is linear and rather obvious , I say it is a clean , true spirited and unfashionably clear cut . I have read an awful lot of books this last year but this one above all others has lifted my heart up. I suppose long-ago echoes of Brigantia run through the book, to me it reveals an older landscape hidden beneath shopping precincts and tarmac.Tthe last wolf was not killed in England till at least a thousand years after this tale , if you visit her wild places even today (despite the small size of the Island) the dark wraith filled past is only a step away.

This book rings true as it did 30 odd years ago, forget being an adult , return to the clarity of childhood! See Rome's works, see Brigantia.This is Brigantia the wild frontier not the Mother of Empire nearly two millenia later.

 

the other two books Prof WP suggested are -Rubicon, and Pompeii (the recent novel), both well worth a read.

Edited December 30, 2005 by Pertinax

[Pertinax]

As the book is in its 50th anniversarry edition , I suppose I should call this "Eagle of the Ninth, Redux"

 

Happy New Year!

 

where you from Willard?

Edited January 1, 2006 by Pertinax

[Germanicus]

Did you ever see the series Pertinax ?

[Pertinax]

I did and ive been scouting for a dvd or tape of it-but ive had no luck.I thought the series was quite well done, with a decent attempt at realism.

http://www.action-tv.org.uk/guides/eagleninth.htm heres the BEEBs link.

Edited January 3, 2006 by Pertinax