World Book Day
Posted March 4, 2010 4:40 pm by Andrew Martin | Permalink
Today is World Book Day. Over the last few days staff members at NLS have been advocating their favourite childrens books to a very discerning audience made up of Primary School children. I took along my dusty old copy of The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. Re-reading an old favourite can be an interesting experience. I was surprised, for example, to find that nearly half of the book has passed before our disguised Roman hero, Marcus, crosses through Hadrian’s Wall, and ventures into the dangerous wilds of Scotland beyond in search of a lost father and a lost legion. That’s the bit I relished, not the scene setting which comes before. The scenes in the abandoned fort at Trimontium near Melrose and by Cruachan and Loch Awe, and then the climactic chase through the Borders landscape remain evocative, atmospheric, and exciting. Historians may say now that the Ninth Legion did not after all disappear in mysterious Scotland, but it remains a good tale, and no wonder a big screen adaptation starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Bell– and filmed on location in Hungary and Achiltibuie- is on its way.