Author Catherine Butler: Catherine Butler is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of the West of England, UK.

'Many people with an enthusiasm for history form their impressions of it by childhood reading. This book shows clearly how complex the portraits of the British past given in children's literature actually are, and how culturally and ideologically loaded. It is one of those works which both vindicate and reinforce the importance of their subject.' Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol, UK

• Acknowledgements Introduction: That was Then? The Eagle Has Landed: Representing the Roman Invasion of Britain in Texts for Children Once, Future, Sometime, Never: Arthur in History 'She Be Faking It': Authenticity and Anachronism Dreams of Things that Never Were: Authenticity and Genre Ancestral Voices, Prophesying War Patterns of History Bibliography Index