Many would become immortalised in the action. Fabled heroes clashed spear against spear, shield against shield and the war waged on and on. This was followed by a very long war, death and lots of blood resulting in a long drawn out siege that would continue for many years. Helen's beauty captured the heart of Paris, and as Christopher Marlowe famously said Helen was the face that launched a thousand ships. The story begins with two lovers, a Trojan Prince (Paris) and the wife of Menelaus King of Sparta (Helen). This, when brought together with the excellent artistic skills of Allan Lee, makes for a lavish retelling of the Iliad. Although aimed at a younger reading audience, Sutcliff's writing is concise and gripping thus, this will be as equally beneficial to adults.

This is the perfect book for those that want a taste of Homer's Iliad before attempting the full work. She wrote incessantly throughout her life, and was still writing on the morning of her death. In 1975 she was appointed OBE for services to Children's Literature and promoted to CBE in 1992. Sutcliff lived for many years in Walberton near Arundel, Sussex. Her The Mark of the Horse Lord won the first Phoenix Award in 1985. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

In 1959, she won the Carnegie Medal for The Lantern Bearers and was runner-up in 1972 with Tristan and Iseult. She found her voice when she wrote The Eagle of the Ninth in 1954. Rosemary Sutcliff began her career as a writer in 1950 with The Chronicles of Robin Hood. She then worked as a painter of miniatures. 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. 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. She contracted Still's Disease when she was very young and was confined to a wheelchair for most of her life. She once commented that she wrote 'for children of all ages, from nine to ninety.'īorn in West Clandon, Surrey, Sutcliff spent her early youth in Malta and other naval bases where her father was stationed as a naval officer.

Although primarily a children's author, the quality and depth of her writing also appeals to adults. Rosemary Sutcliff, CBE (1920-1992) was a British novelist, best known as a writer of highly acclaimed historical fiction.

Black ships before troy book