Information
In Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels for children there is a strong sense of place, which is as much part of their strength as the vivid recreation of past events and the psychological dilemmas of her characters. Roman Britain was a favourite setting of hers and the desolate marshes of the Isle of Thanet, then truly an island, feature in two of her books, one of which chronicles the dying days of the Roman Empire and the other the years after the Romans withdraw from their far-flung colony.
Quotations
In ‘The Silver Branch’ (1957), the Isle of Thanet, close to the great Roman shore-fort at Rutupiae, (Richborough), is a background to the decline of Roman rule in Britain.
Several times as that winter drew on to spring, Justin and Flavius went out together after wild fowl in the marshes: the strange border country between land and sea, that had for Justin the magic of all half-way things.
Their usual hunting ground was Tanatus, the great marsh island across the shipping lane from Rutupiae, but about mid March there were reports of a Saxon ship hovering in the sea-ways that had somehow eluded the patrol galleys, and Tanatus was put out of bounds to the fortress because of the ease with which stray, wild-fowling Legionaries might be cut off there by the Sea Wolves.
In ‘The Lantern Bearers’ (1959), the Isle of Thanet is the scene of the landing of the Jutes, come to seek more fertile dwelling places.
For three days they ran down the coast, drawing in slowly, until, long after noon on the third day, they were nosing in towards the low, marshy shores of Tanatus. The wind had fallen light and they had to take to the oars again to aid the scarcely swelling sails. They had hung the shields, black and crimson, blue and buff and gold, along the bulwarks just clear of the oar-ports, and shipped at their prows the snarling figureheads that had lain until now under the half-decks, safe from the pounding of the seas. And so, proud and deadly, the little wild-goose skein of barbarian keels swept down on Britain, and their appointed landing beaches.
Place | Extract |
| Isle of Thanet | In Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical novels for children there is a strong sense of place, which is as much part of their strength as the vivid recreation of past events and the psychological dilemmas of her characters... |
| Rochester | Rosemary Sutcliff was the author of over 40 books, many of them historical fiction for children... |
