| "THE LANTERN BEARERS" Book Description
Author: Rosemary Sutcliff
Interest Level: Grades 8-12
Publisher Recommended Age: 10+
Publisher: Macmillan/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 240
Threatened by a tide of invaders, the last of the Roman Auxiliaries are to leave Britain forever. But Aquila, a young legionnaire, chooses to stay behind, in order to join the fight to save his native land.
The Lantern Bearers is a historical adventure novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff and published in 1959, with illustrations by Charles Keeping. Set in Roman Britain in the 400s, it is the story of a British Roman's life after the final withdrawal of Roman troops from Britain.
Although part of a series of loosely-connected books—it follows The Eagle of the Ninth and The Silver Branch and precedes Sword at Sunset—the themes in The Lantern Bearers are more complex than in the prior books.
Issues of loss, estrangement, and loyalty are more complicated, pulling main characters in conflicting directions. Reviewers tend to regard it as appropriate for a slightly older readership than its predecessors.
The title comes from a remark made by one of the characters, "We are the lantern bearers, my friend; for us to keep something burning, to carry what light we can forward into the darkness and the wind". The effort to maintain what the protagonists see as the light of civilisation against Saxon barbarians is central to the plot of the book.
The Lantern Bearers won the Carnegie Medal for literature.
The Lantern Bearers is one of the three books that are loosely written as a book series. The additional books in the "Eagle of the Ninth" series are listed under the "Learn More" tab above.
Book Reviews:
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: "A spellbinding historical adventure...Smoothly written, fast-paced, remarkable in the atmosphere it evokes."
Book Awards:
- UK: Carnegie Medal 1959
- USA: ALA (American Library Assn), Notable Children's Books
Book Group Guide:
About the Author:
Rosemary Sutcliff CBE (December 14, 1920 - July 23, 1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction. Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults, she herself once commenting that she wrote "for children of all ages from nine to ninety."
Born in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. 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. 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. She then worked as a painter of miniatures.
Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985.
Rosemary lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. She never married. |
