Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection

£140.00 

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Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl

Set of seven limited edition Slightly Foxed Cubs by Rosemary Sutcliff. 

Rosemary Sutcliff’s four great Roman novels, The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), The Silver Branch (1957), Frontier Wolf (1980) and The Lantern Bearers (winner of the 1959 Carnegie Medal) tell the story of the Roman occupation of Britain through the fortunes of several generations of the Aquila family, from the Empire’s glory days to its final withdrawal, weakened by increasing pressure from Saxon raiders and internal power struggles at home. 

 

Sutcliff was writing primarily for children, but she never talks down to her readers, and adults too find these novels impossible to put down. All of them are based on historical fact but it’s Sutcliff’s imaginative brilliance that makes you smell the burning cherry log warming old Uncle Aquila’s cosy study, feel the tension in the air at the Saturnalia Games, and shiver in the icy winds howling round the bleak frontier forts along Hadrian’s Wall. Her protagonists, young Romans who have come to love their adopted country and strive to keep its values alive, are no cardboard cut-outs but flesh-and-blood people with understandable weaknesses and beset by recognizable human dilemmas, and it is they who drive the plots.

As well as being brilliant reads, together these novels make sense of a far-off period that left its mark on almost every aspect of British life. They have been difficult to find for some time and we’re delighted that Slightly Foxed decided to reissue them with their original illustrations.

It is also possible to buy these books in pairs, just let us know which two you'd like in the order notes. 

The Eagle of the Ninth
As Marcus the young centurion arrives in Britain to take up his first command, he is haunted by the memory of his father and the 6,000 men of the Ninth Hispana Legion, who twelve years earlier had marched north of Hadrian’s Wall to quell an uprising and were never seen again. Seriously wounded soon after in an attack by hostile tribesmen, invalided out of the Roman Army and wondering what to do with his life, Marcus determines to make the hazardous journey north in a bid to discover the fate of the Ninth Legion, and in particular of the Roman eagle, the Legion’s standard and a possible rallying point for the northern tribes in their war against Rome. Sutcliff’s most famous book is a gripping adventure and a touching coming-of-age story, based on the real disappearance of the Ninth Legion around the year AD 117.

The Silver Branch
Roman influence in Britain is waning. The Empire is increasingly threatened by hostile tribes along its borders and divided by political struggles at home. Two distant cousins who have met by chance in Britain – Justin, a shy, newly qualified army surgeon and Flavius, a young centurion – are caught up in the power struggles between Carausius, the charismatic Emperor of Britain, his cruel and ruthless treasurer, and the Emperor in Rome. Disgraced after their attempt to warn Carausius about a plot against him fails, the two go underground, rallying support for the legitimate Emperor and finally taking refuge at the farm of their formidable Great Aunt Honoria. Here they make an astonishing discovery which affects their future and links directly back to their ancestor Marcus and the disappearance of the Ninth Legion.

Frontier Wolf
After a disastrous misjudgement which cost the lives of half his men, Alexios, another young centurion and member of the Aquila family, is sent to take charge of a bleak Roman outpost on Hadrian’s Wall and the savage bunch of men who defend it, the Frontier Wolves of the title. Dealing with this notorious legion is literally a matter of life and death for Alexios, for a commander who alienates them is unlikely to survive. Frontier Wolf tells the story of how this flawed but likeable hero grows in stature, gradually gaining his legion’s respect and the co-operation of the surrounding tribes, and defending Rome as the threat from the north grows.

The Lantern Bearers 
The shadow of the approaching Dark Ages hangs over this last of the Roman novels. Rome’s legacy is finally decaying, the regular legions have been withdrawn, and Saxon raiding parties are invading the British countryside. As commander of a cavalry troop, young Aquila has been ordered to leave, but he has grown to love Britain and stays on, only to see his father’s farm torched by the Saxons, his father and the household servants murdered and his sister Flavia abducted. Aquila himself is captured and spends years as slave to a Saxon clan, but as the darkness gathers over Britain, it only strengthens his determination to avenge his family and keep Roman values alive.

Dawn Wind
Wounded and hungry, and with only a great fighting dog for company, he makes for the old Roman city of Viroconium where, among the ruins, he meets another survivor, Regina, a young and terrified orphaned girl and together they set off for the coast, planning to leave Britain for a British settlement in Gaul. On the journey Regina falls desperately ill and Owain buys her safety with his own freedom, becoming a thrall in a Saxon household. But in the years that follow he never forgets Regina, and when he regains his freedom the two meet again.

Sword Song                                                                                                                   Bjarni joins a merchant ship sailing for Dublin from where, robbed of his possessions but with a new companion, a stray hound he calls Hugin, he embarks on a career as a mercenary in the wars between the clan chiefs in Ireland, Wales and the Scottish Isles. On Mull, he falls under the influence of the chief’s devoutly Christian mother Lady Aud, and after a chance meeting on a journey with her to the monastery on Iona, he is able to return and receive absolution from Rafn Cedricson for the breaking of his vow.

The Shield Ring                                                                                                                       Here she meets another orphan, Bjorn, and over the years the two become inseparable. When William the Conqueror’s son William II marches north through Lakeland to confront the Scots, the Norsemen send a peace envoy, who is cruelly tortured and murdered by the Normans. It’s clear William is determined to take this final tactical outpost, but Bjorn, disguised as a travelling harper and secretly accompanied by Frytha, enters the enemy camp and after a terrifying ordeal brings back vital information which gives the advantage to the Norsemen. 

Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl
Limited Edition Cubs Roman Collection - Blue Bowl