Excalibur

Author	Robb White
ISBN	0913122416

September 2019: I just edited this review a little bit because in my twenties, when I wrote this, I felt invisible on the internet: by which I mean, I wrote this carelessly and goofily and with more cussing than feels apt to me today, in my forties. At the time, I worked at Strand in Manhattan, at the main-floor...

Author	Edward Eager
ISBN	0152020799

Of all the Edward Eager books, this is probably the one I know least well, the one I don't think I first sat down and read until I was an adult - which means, unfortunately, that it missed out on that golden period where I devoured books as a child, reread them ad nauseam, and now carry them forever with me.

Note:...

Author	Rosemary Sutcliff
ISBN	0140371494

First of a series of three books retelling of tales of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table for children (The Light Beyond the Forest deals with the quest for the Holy Grail, The Road to Camlann with the end of the whole Arthur business. OK, but not particularly distinctive I think because Sutcliff...

Author	P.C. Wren
ISBN	0899681352

Questions of duty and decency as shield over a loved one are examined in this wonderful novel of adventure and friendship. Michael, Digby and John (the Geste brothers) run away to join the French Foreign Legion in Algeria after the "Blue Water" sapphire disappears and Lady Brandon (the aunt who has raised...

Author	Rosemary Sutcliff
ISBN	0140371508

Of the trilogy this is the volume that I have the tenderest memories of possibly because it was the first one that I read - our access to bookshops was haphazard as a child and with libraries and schools you get to read what you can get your hands on.

I was surprised when I was older and read the medieval...

Author	Rosemary Sutcliff
ISBN	0525440186

This book is lovely, too. I didn't quite cry, really, but there was a certain tight ache in my throat at certain points. The bittersweetness is much closer to the bitter than the sweet in this book, but thankfully I didn't feel like I had to hate any character for the way they treated the others -- they were...