"The Story of the Iliad
Homer's epic poem, The Illiad, is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. In it, the abduction of the legendary beauty, Helen of Troy, leads to a conflict in which even the gods and goddesses take sides and intervene. It is in the Trojan War that the most valiant heroes of the ancient world are pitted against one another. Here Hectore, Ajax, Achilles, and Odysseus meet their most formidable challenges and in some casas their tragic ends.
Rosemary Sutcliff makes such extraordinary stories as those of those Trojan horse, of Aphrodite and the golden apple, and of the fearsome warrior women Amazons, accessible to contemporary young people.
"From the Hardcover edition.
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF, who sadly died in 1992, was the author of many widely-acclaimed historical novels for both children and adults. She won the Library Association Carnegie Medal in 1959 for her historical novel for children The Lantern Bearers, and was runner-up with Tristan and Iseult in 1972. ALAN LEE won the Kate Greenaway Medal for his illustrations to Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy, which was followed by The Wanderings of Odysseus (both Frances Lincoln). In 1998 he won the Best Artist Award at the World Fantasy Awards. He illustrated the Centenary editions of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and, more recently, The Children of Hurin (HarperCollins). He went on to transform his vision of Middle Earth from page to celluloid in Peter Jackson's film trilogy The Lord of the Rings, winning an Oscar in 2004 as part of the Art Direction team on The Return of the King. He is now designing the film of The Hobbit. Alan lives in South Devon.