Miss Sutcliff's first book, a retelling of the Robin Hood legends, and the three which followed, are written for younger children and, while they give pleasure, they do not suggest the range and power of the later books. Signs of this developing potential came with the publication of Simon in 1953, a story with a Civil War setting, whose hero fights for the Parliamentary cause. Teachers welcome this book as a counterweight to the over-romantic view of the war seen from the Royalist camp which is commonly propounded in historical novels; but to the child reading the book, it is very much more than a roman à thèse, it is a story about timeless and enduring problems. Simon, the name character, has to resolve the rival claims of friendship and loyalty to a cause, to grow up and to move from the protection of his family to an adult life with public responsibilities. This blending of historical setting and timeless problems is the mark of all Rosemary Sutcliff's later work, and one of the main reasons for its popularity with children. (p. 138)

In the year after Simon appeared, Eagle of the Ninth was published, and marked the beginning of a sequence of novels which explore many aspects of Roman Britain from the full flush of Roman power until long after the legions had departed, and Rome was only a memory and a hope in the hearts of a few men—a civilisation, a way of life, 'the last brave glimmer of a lantern very far behind'. In each of the novels, the hero has his personal conflict, his particular quest. Aquila, in The Lantern Bearers, has to overcome the bitterness left by the destruction of all he held dear in his youth and to learn the importance of personal relationships and the value of family love. Owain, in Dawn Wind, keeps his ideal of Roman civilisation before him through all his years as a Saxon thrall, and he too discovers the importance of his obligations to his fellowmen. Phaedrus, in The Mark of the Horse Lord, wins his freedom in the arena and, with Roman fortitude, gives his life for the safety of the tribe which had made him their lord. These and other heroes express the adolescent's need to work out a code of behaviour, to discover his public loyalties, and to establish his personal integrity.

Beside the Romano-British sequence, there are three novels which explore similar personal problems in different historical settings. These are: The Shield Ring, a story of the Norse community in Lakeland which maintained its freedom and way of life for a generation after the Norman Conquest; Knight's Fee, set in Norman Sussex; and Warrior Scarlet, set in Bronze Age Sussex. Perhaps even more strongly than in the Romano-British novels, the reader is aware of the theme of quest, of overcoming handicap, of the adolescent's urgent need to play his part in the life around him. Drem, in Warrior Scarlet, has the handicap of a crippled right arm. Society's demands are uncomplicated and uncompromising. To take his part in the life of the tribe, he must kill his wolf in ritual battle and be able to take his place in the warrior band; if he cannot fulfil these demands, then he must be banished to live with the conquered Neolithic people, the shepherds and servants of the tribe. Randal, in Knight's Fee, is physically whole but spiritually crippled—abandoned as a baby, he has learned to keep alive by lying and stealing—and he has to learn a more ordered way of life. For both Drem and Randal, the major problem is to conquer their handicap, to learn not to allow resentment to colour their relations with their fellows, and to give and accept friendship.

To the history teacher, Rosemary Sutcliff's novels are a valuable teaching aid. The novelist's imagination illuminates and brings to life periods and ways of life that are remote and difficult to understand. Norman land-tenure is a complex study, but the rights and duties of knight-service are the very stuff of the plot of Knight's Fee, as is the Romanisation of Britain in such books as The Silver Branch, The Lantern Bearers, and Dawn Wind. We are today cushioned from the elements, but Rosemary Sutcliff can make us feel the famine that lurked at winter's end, the threat of wolves making each winter night dangerous. We can feel the narrow boundaries, the constriction of the tribal world, or the stretching of the known world under the Roman Empire. The impression of space, of the difficulties of journeying from one settlement to another, and the time consumed in doing so, come with a shock of surprise to the child of today's world of easy transport; to one growing up in this overcrowded island. (pp. 139-40)