The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
‘I came across this when I was ten years old. A set of the books was gathering dust in the class-room cupboard and my teacher recommended it to me. The book had a battered blue cloth cover and the names of a dozen or so pupils who had been issued the book before me so it already felt like a piece of history. I was immediately gripped by Sutcliff ’s novel about a young Roman officer serving in ancient Britain. Having only
