{"id":34457,"date":"2017-07-31T06:30:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-30T18:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=34457"},"modified":"2017-07-04T20:17:02","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T08:17:02","slug":"rereading-rosemary-sutcliff-a-shoutout-for-frontier-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2017\/07\/31\/rereading-rosemary-sutcliff-a-shoutout-for-frontier-wolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Rereading Rosemary Sutcliff: A Shoutout for “Frontier Wolf”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1984 cover<\/p><\/div>\n

I grew up reading and rereading Rosemary Sutcliff’s<\/a> historical novels, “probably” the most famous of which are two of her Roman-Britain novels, The Eagle of the Ninth<\/em>, which I believe has been dramatised twice, and The Lantern Bearers<\/em>, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1959.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the books you’ve loved as a junior or young adult reader don’t withstand a more adult scrutiny, but I’ve found Rosemary Sutcliff’s do stand the test of time. I believe this is because her historical research is so good and also because her eye for character, ear for dialogue, sense of story pacing, and ability to convey emotional depth are all so well honed.<\/p>\n

Frontier Wolf<\/em> (first published in 1980) is another novel set in the Roman British world, ca. 343 AD according to the author’s foreword, and my re-read did not disappoint. Although it’s less well known than the two works mentioned above, I thought it was vintage Sutcliff. In most of the stories I’ve read, the protagonist either has to overcome a personal obstacle (for example, Marcus in The Eagle of the Ninth <\/em>is invalided out of the army because of a wound, and must overcome his subsequent lameness\u00a0 to make his life new) or those generated by history (e.g. The Lantern Bearers<\/em> concerns the period following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire from Britain.) In Frontier Wolf<\/em>, the protagonist, Alexios, must overcome the military error and disgrace that has resulted in him being sent to an auxiliary unit on the borders of the Empire: in this case in the region we think of as the Scottish Lowlands, beyond Hadrian’s Wall.<\/p>\n

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Kindle cover<\/p><\/div>\n

Other elements of classic Sutcliff include Alexios proving himself to his command, the “frontier wolves” of the title; friendship and brotherhood, both among his own people and across the divide between the Romans and the British (Scottish) tribes; and experience of the battles and campaigns of the period within this personalized framework.<\/p>\n

And because this is vintage Sutcliff, the characters, the pacing, the sense of adventure, and the emotional depth all deliver. So if you like historical fiction, adventurous stories, YA literature, or any sort of good tale, well told, then you may well enjoy Frontier Wolf<\/em>. Or any other of Sutcliff’s novels, for that matter.<\/p>\n

In terms of availability, I obtained my reading copy from Christchurch City Libraries. Owing to the popularity of Sutcliff’s writing I believe her books will still be available in most libraries. Copies are also likely to be available second hand for the books that are no longer in print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up reading and rereading Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels, “probably” the most famous of which are two of her Roman-Britain novels, The Eagle of the Ninth, which I believe has been dramatised twice, and The Lantern Bearers, which won the Carnegie Medal in 1959. Sometimes, the books you’ve loved as a junior or young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,46,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-recommended-reading","category-what-im-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34457"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34465,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34457\/revisions\/34465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}