Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) wrote historical fiction, mostly for children.
Sutcliff did not intentionally write multi-book series (except, probably, for her ‘mythic’ Arthurian trilogy), but several of her books, starting with The Eagle of the Ninth (1954), are linked by mentions of an emerald ring. These are known as the “Eagle of the Ninth” series (AKA the “Marcus” series). Three of the early books in this series are known as the "Eagle of the Ninth" trilogy. Confused? Caveat lector!
Two of these books involve Artos (a realistic version of King Arthur). He appears in The Lantern Bearers and narrates Sword at Sunset. Another novel, Tristan and Iseult, which is not in the ‘Eagle’ series, is part of her realistic take on Arthurian myth.
Later she wrote an Arthurian trilogy inspired by Le Morte d’Arthur and other ancient texts; naturally, these are less realistic. The 2nd of these was published in 1979 and the 1st and 3rd in 1981, suggesting that this was planned as a trilogy.
| Date | Title | E# | A# | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | The Eagle of the Ninth | 1 | — | 1st in Eagle ‘trilogy’ |
| 1957 | The Silver Branch | 2 | — | 2nd in Eagle ‘trilogy’ |
| 1980 | Frontier Wolf | 3 | — | |
| 1959 | The Lantern Bearers | 4 | 1 | 3rd in Eagle ‘trilogy’ |
| 1963 | Sword at Sunset | 5 | 2 | For adults |
| 1961 | Dawn Wind | 6 | — | |
| 1997 | Sword Song | 7 | — | AKA The Sword Song of Bjarni Sigurdson |
| 1956 | The Shield Ring | 8 | — | AU$8 at Amazon AU; US$5 here |
| 1971 | Tristan and Iseult | — | 3 |
(Some of these are novellas or even novelettes. Others are short stories; I have marked several of those, but may have missed some.)
| 1950 | The Chronicles of Robin Hood | The first book she wrote |
| 1950 | The Queen Elizabeth Story | Her first published book; fantasy, child protag |
| 1951 | The Armourer’s House | Set in Henry VIII’s time |
| 1952 | Brother Dusty-Feet | Set in early Elizabethan England |
| 1953 | Simon | Set during the 17th-century English Civil War |
| 1955 | Outcast | Set in Roman Britain |
| 1957 | Lady in Waiting | For adults; About Bess Throckmorton, Walter Raleigh’s wife |
| 1958 | Warrior Scarlet | Set in Bronze Age Britain; Collected in Best of (1987) |
| 1959 | The Rider of the White Horse | For adults; About Roundhead Sir Thomas Fairfax & his wife Anne |
| 1960 | Knight’s Fee | Set in West Essex 1094-1106; Collected in Best of (1987) |
| 1960 | Bridge Builders | Short story about building Hadrian’s Wall |
| 1961 | Beowulf: Dragonslayer | Retelling of Beowulf |
| 1963 | The Hound of Ulster | Retells the story of Cúchulainn |
| 1965 | The Mark of the Horse Lord | Set in Roman Britain; Collected in Best of (1987) |
| 1967 | The Chief’s Daughter | Short story; Collected in Heather, Oak, and Olive |
| 1967 | The High Deeds of Finn MacCool | Retells the Fenian Cycle |
| 1968 | A Circlet of Oak Leaves | Collected in Heather, Oak, and Olive |
| 1969 | The Flowers of Adonis | For adults; About Alkibiades and the Peloponnesian War |
| 1970 | The Witch’s Brat | Set in 12th-century England; disabled boy turns healer |
| 1971 | The Truce of the Games | Collected in Heather, Oak, and Olive |
| 1972 | Heather, Oak, and Olive | Omnibus: Chief’s Daughter, Circlet of Oak Leaves, Truce of the Games |
| 1973 | The Capricorn Bracelet | Follows a Romano-British family for 300 years |
| 1974 | The Changeling | Set in ancient Britain |
| 1976 | Blood Feud | Starts in 10th-century England, ends in Constantinople |
| 1977 | Sun Horse, Moon Horse | Set in Bronze Age Britain |
| 1977 | Shifting Sands | Short story; Set in prehistoric Orkney |
| 1978 | Song for a Dark Queen | Retells the story of Queen Boudica |
| 1979 | The Light Beyond the Forest | 2nd in Arthurian trilogy |
| 1981 | The Sword and the Circle | 1st in Arthurian trilogy |
| 1981 | The Road to Camlann | 3rd in Arthurian trilogy |
| 1981 | Eagle’s Egg | How a Roman wins the hand of a 2nd-century British girl |
| 1983 | Bonnie Dundee | About John Graham, 1st Viscount of Dundee |
| 1986 | Flame-coloured Taffeta | Smuggling in 18th-century southern England |
| 1986 | The Roundabout Horse | Short story; roundabout horse “breaks free from its carousel” |
| 1987 | A Little Dog Like You | Short story; A woman’s pet dog returns via reincarnation |
| 1987 | Blood and Sand | For adults; about Thomas Keith (c1793-1815) |
| 1987 | The Best of Rosemary Sutcliff | Omnibus: Warrior Scarlet, Mark of the Horse Lord, Knight’s Fee |
| 1990 | The Shining Company | Based on Y Gododdin |
| 1993 | The Minstrel and the Dragon Pup | Short story; A “quasi-medieval fairytale” |
| 1993 | Black Ships Before Troy | Retelling of The Iliad |
| 1993 | Chess-Dream in a Garden | Short story; inspired by the 12th-century Lewis Chessmen |
| 1995 | The Wanderings of Odysseus | Retelling of The Odyssey |
Most of her books are available at Amazon US.
Some are available as EPUBs at ebooks.com.
The RosemarySutcliff.com website has a useful page summarising all her books.