- Find all the latest books, toys, games and DVDs from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in our Harry Potter store.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"The trilogy is an ambitious and brilliantly realised work, which informs and astounds." (Joanne Owen, Borders Bookshop Bookseller Buyer's Guide Highlights, 11 Jun 03 )
"...the multi-layered conclusion to a most original trilogy...The style is distinctive; short, kaleidoscopic chapters marked by uncluttered, precise sentences. Legend and historical fact are subtly intertwined to make an exciting medieval adventure relevant to today's conflicts and beliefs." (Lesley Agnew The Bookseller, 25 July 2003 )
"If you like a good historical saga then you've probably already read The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing-Places, the first two-thirds of Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy. King of the Middle March weighs in at 432 pages and is a fairly chunky read...At times funny, at times magical and at times dark, King of the Middle March more than repays the effort" (John Crace Guardian Children's Books Supplement, Autumn 2003 )
"Crossley-Holland is, of course, a poet, and the simplicity, musicality and laconic directness of his writing reflects this." (The Independent, 31 October 2003 )
"...a dramatic conlusion to what has been a wonderfully inventive perspective on Arthurian legend...full of contemporary relevance." (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 30 Oct 03 )
"With King of the Middle March, Kevin Crossley-Holland triumphantly concludes his trilogy about the two Arthurs...Arthur's breathless diary entries have an immediacy and wonder" (Jan Mark Times Educational Supplement, 14 Nov 03 )
"...conjures up a vivid picture of medieval life combined with the magic of Arthurian legends." (Financial Times, 29 Nov 03 )
"King of the Middle March makes a fitting elegiac end to a remarkably grown-up sequence." (Guardian, 29 November 2003 )
"...the multi-layered conclusion to a most original trilogy...The style is distinctive; short, kaleidoscopic chapters marked by uncluttered, precise sentences. Legend and historical fact are subtly intertwined to make an exciting medieval adventure relevant to today's conflicts and beliefs." (Lesley Agnew The Bookseller, 25 July 2003 )
"If you like a good historical saga then you've probably already read The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing-Places, the first two-thirds of Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy. King of the Middle March weighs in at 432 pages and is a fairly chunky read...At times funny, at times magical and at times dark, King of the Middle March more than repays the effort" (John Crace Guardian Children's Books Supplement, Autumn 2003 )
"Crossley-Holland is, of course, a poet, and the simplicity, musicality and laconic directness of his writing reflects this." (The Independent, 31 October 2003 )
"...a dramatic conlusion to what has been a wonderfully inventive perspective on Arthurian legend...full of contemporary relevance." (Hampstead & Highgate Express, 30 Oct 03 )
"With King of the Middle March, Kevin Crossley-Holland triumphantly concludes his trilogy about the two Arthurs...Arthur's breathless diary entries have an immediacy and wonder" (Jan Mark Times Educational Supplement, 14 Nov 03 )
"...conjures up a vivid picture of medieval life combined with the magic of Arthurian legends." (Financial Times, 29 Nov 03 )
"King of the Middle March makes a fitting elegiac end to a remarkably grown-up sequence." (Guardian, 29 November 2003 )
The Independent, October 31, 2003
Crossley-Holland is, of course, a poet, and the simplicity, musicality and laconic directness of his writing reflects this.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Arthur Trilogy - King of the Middle March,
By A Customer
This review is from: King of the Middle March (Arthur) (Hardcover)
This is one of the best books I've ever read. In my opinion it is better than even the Harry Potter series. It is imaginative, thoughtful, funny, and fantastic. I may be a kid but i know a good book when i read one and this is the best. A must for all people who love fantasy and heroics. Amazing!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Complex and enchanting - an excellent finale to the trilogy,
This review is from: King of the Middle March (Arthur) (Paperback)
The final instalment in Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy, "King of the Middle March", takes his protagonist far from his familiar surroundings on the Welsh borders. It is the year 1203, and Arthur de Gortanore (formerly de Caldicot) is now sixteen, on the verge of manhood and about to become a knight. He and his lord, Stephen de Holt, have travelled to Venice to join what will become the Fourth Crusade as it begins its long journey towards Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Guiding Arthur on the way is his obsidian seeing-stone, a magical artefact given to him years before by the wise man of his village, which reveals to him another world: that of his namesake, the King Arthur of legend, and of his Knights of the Round Table.
On crusade Arthur is confronted by new challenges as well as old enemies, but he is a different character to when we left him at the end of "At the Crossing-Places" - older and slightly wiser - and it is interesting to see how he deals with those challenges. In particular it is refreshing to see him forge a friendship with his cousin and one-time bully Serle, while even Arthur's father, William de Gortanore, previously depicted as boorish and unprincipled, is shown to have some redeeming qualities. Indeed few characters in the novel are truly good or evil; each has his contradictions, his own demons. It is this kind of realistic touch which makes the world that Crossley-Holland has created so believable. Arthur finds that love can be complicated, that it is not always easy to do the noble thing, that the difference between right and wrong is often unclear - all of which allows the reader to closely identify with him. The device of the seeing stone is also used to greater effect in "King of the Middle March". Whereas the first two books dealt with the founding of the Round Table fellowship and the adventures of the various knights who comprised it, this one sees its dissolution: an event which is mirrored in the crusaders' own internecine struggles, in which ideals are often cast aside in pursuit of power and of wealth. Again, the seeing stone reflects Arthur's own experiences, showing him that life is messy and that happy endings are not guaranteed, but take effort to achieve. The same message pervades the book's ending, which cleverly leaves a number of issues unresolved, showing that whereas the stories of legend often have a discernible structure, real life is seldom so neatly divided: our stories and journeys, like Arthur's, are ongoing. "King of the Middle March" is an an excellent climax to the Arthur trilogy: a complex and enchanting coming-of-age tale which will appeal to all ages, meditating as it does on the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the compromises we all have to make in life. It will be interesting to see how the author develops the same themes in "Gatty's Tale", a semi-sequel to this trilogy featuring Arthur's best friend from the first two books.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Uplifting, emotional, occasionally horrific but a great read,
By
This review is from: King of the Middle March (Arthur) (Paperback)
This is the third in this series and is different in scale and tone. In the others, you are immersed in the medieval world of the manor house, seen though the eyes of a boy. That must be hard enough for an author to write accurately and entertainingly, but this one takes the boy off on the crusades - the greatest adventure of his life - and you experience it all: the politics, relationships, petty fights and bullying to gory battles and siege warfare. It is occasionally difficult to follow because of the complex politics and the obscure terminology, but it is so involving that his return home - with its familiarity, changes and new responsibilities - was quite emotional, and his maturity about his situation and his future was touching and truly wonderful and uplifting to read. Some of the poems are a bit lame and indulgent, but the horrors and nonsense of the crusade and the development of his relationships are heart-rending and memorable.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
