Rosemary Sutcliff has dwelt so long, imaginatively, in the Dark Ages that she seems not quite at ease in bringing Arthur into the age of chivalry. Future literary historians, assessing her contribution to the literature of our age, will find profitable exercise in comparing her approach to the figure of Arthur in The Lantern Bearers, in the adult novel Sword at Sunset, and in this rather more conventional exploration of Malory and other medieval sources [The Sword and the Circle].

Perhaps it is some evidence of her incomplete ease that Miss Sutcliff returns here to some of the stylistic devices of her earlier books. There is much elegant and atmospheric writing, a little less of the terse, hard lines which have distinguished the later novels for children.

This having been said, let me hasten to add that this is as good a retelling of the ancient stories as...