Justin is immediately befriended by a red-headed soldier named Flavius-who turns out to be his cousin, Marcellus Flavius Aquila, direct descendant of Marcus from The Eagle of the Ninth. (By now, the Roman Empire has become a Tetrarchy). A Celtic leader named Curoi, called Carausius in Latin, has declared himself emperor of Britannia and the northern part of Gaul he has gained temporary recognition from actual Emperor Maximian in honor of Carausius’ sea victories. His family line, Aquila, has been connected to Britannia for two hundred years, but he has never set foot there till now. Justin is an introverted, awkward young military surgeon. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex.

Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She then worked as a painter of miniatures. Her early schooling being continually interrupted by moving house and her disabling condition, Sutcliff didn't learn to read until she was nine, and left school at fourteen to enter the Bideford Art School, which she attended for three years, graduating from the General Art Course. Due to her chronic sickness, she spent the majority of her time with her mother, a tireless storyteller, from whom she learned many of the Celtic and Saxon legends that she would later expand into works of historical fiction.

She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. She once commented that she wrote 'for children of all ages, from nine to ninety.'īorn in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. Rosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction.

The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliff