Tales of King Arthur and the Round Table have an enduring fascination. T H White's glorious retelling of the legend in 'The Once And Future King' has become as respected in its own right as its inspiration, Malory's 'Le Morte D'Arthur', which was the last and greatest of the original Arthurian romances.
The four volumes that make up 'The Once And Future King' - 'The Sword In The Stone', 'The Witch In The Wood', 'The Ill-Made Knight' and 'The Candle In The Wind' - bring into sharp focus the essential tragedy of Arthur's life - his illegitimate birth - which leads to his begetting Mordred upon his half-sister Morgan Le Fay, the Queen of Air and Darkness. It begins with the story of a young orphan boy growing up in a castle. His tutor, the magician Merlyn, guards the secret of his true identity, until one day the boy comes across a sword stuck fast in a stone.
T H White brings to life the major British epic of all time with brilliance, grandeur, warmth and charm. Exquisite comedy offsets the tragedy of Arthur's personal doom and White's own overwhelming nostalgia for a lost land of England. 'The Once And Future King' is one of the central fantasy texts of the twentieth century. First published in this format in 1958, the extraordinary freshness and intensity of the writing make this imaginative retelling of Arthurian legend an abiding classic.
