2020/122: The Lantern Bearers -- Rosemary Sutcliff

2020/122: The Lantern Bearers -- Rosemary Sutcliff

He had a sudden longing, which wasn’t a bit like him now, though it was like the person he had been before the Saxons burned his home, to give Ness things; to bring them and heap them into her lap. New songs and the three stars of Orion’s belt, and honey-in-the-comb, and branches of white flowering thorn at mid-winter; not only for her sake, but for Flavia’s sake as well. [p. 154]

A novel of the end of Rome in Britain, and the British resistance to the Saxon invasion. It's the Roman aspect, and the turmoil of Britain after Rome's retreat, that captivated me as a ten-year-old: this was one of my favourite novels as a child, though I hadn't reread it for many years. ( some spoilers )