Arthur the King by Allan Massie

Arthur the King by Allan Massie

In this epic novel, Allan Massie cleverly uses the key points of the Arthurian legend - Arthur himself, his wife Guinevere, his lover Morgan le Fay, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, and the Knights of the Round Table - but readers would need to be exceptionally well versed in Arthurian lore to tell where Massie has added his own inventive twists to the tale. From the moment when callow young Arthur succeeds in drawing the sword Excalibur from the stone, thus becoming King, the story unfolds. We see how, with the aid of Merlin and the knights, Arthur welded England into a single nation, and became involved in the wars of a wider Europe, until at his death England fragmented once again. We may think we know the story of Arthur and of Camelot, but in Massie's hands it comes across as newly minted.

"If you have only a dim recollection of the Arthur legends, this is an opportunity to rediscover their varietyAnd Massie entertainingly adds his own, deliberately anachronistic, original ingredients." -- SALLEY VICKERS, THE TIMES "The Arthurian legends... always bear a fresh telling, especially from such a well-versed historical novelist as Massie... a cracking story." THE OBSERVER "I hope Massie doesn't stop at a mere trilogy. With entertainment as high-wrought and glittering as this, even a dodecalogy would be too short." DAILY TELEGRAPH "a lively and colourful yarn." SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "A timely examination of the power and pitfalls of myth in political life." SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY "This novel simply adds to my admiration for this absurdly underrated author." GLASGOW HERALD "Well-handled" TLS "It is in the mists of sinister suggestion that Massie's skill truly glitters... you are held by the throat from beginning to end." INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Allan Massie is the author of seventeen highly praised novels, as well as non-fiction works on Muriel Spark, a study of twelve emperors of ancient Rome, a history of crime in 19th-century Edinburgh and the acclaimed GLASGOW: PORTRAITS OF A CITY. He was brought up in Aberdeenshire and educated at Glenalmond School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read history. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has been a judge of the Booker Prize. He is also a journalist, contributing to the Scottish and English press. He is married, has three children and lives in the Scottish Borders.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780297816782
ISBN 10	0297816780
Title	Arthur the King
Author	Allan Massie
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Orion Publishing Co
Year published	2003-09-11
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable