About this item
Foreword by Neil GaimanThe world's leading Arthurian authority reimagines one of the most beloved and influential legends - the story of King Arthur and his Knights - for a new century in this gorgeous keepsake edition, illustrated with luminous full-color paintings and drawings by internationally acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe.The stories of King Arthur and Merlin, Lancelot and Guinevere, Galahad, Gawain, Tristan and the rest of the Knights of the Roundtable, and the search for the Holy Grail have been beloved for centuries and are the inspiration of many modern fantasy novels, films, and shows. These legends began when an obscure Celtic hero named Arthur stepped on to the stage of history sometime in the sixth century, generating a host of oral tales that would be inscribed some 900 years later by Thomas Malory in his classic Morte D'Arthur (The Death of Arthur) .
About the Author
As any Hollywood executive will tell you, there are three main acts in a film - and I suppose it could be said that my writing career has followed the same path.The first act was two novels written in my twenties, Basikasingo and Crescents of the Moon. Published by Hutchinson/Arrow Books in London, both did well, selling 100,000 plus. But I became distracted with other publishing ventures and didn't return to writing novels for some while.That return (Act Two, if you will), was with one of my strongest books to date, Past Imperfect. A crime thriller with a difference - think in terms of John Grisham meets Stephen King, but with an atmospheric 1960s French setting - Past Imperfect went on to sell over 500,000 copies in 8 countries. The Last Witness, The Shadow Chaser and Ascension Day followed in similar crime-thriller style. This in turn led to me penning a film treatment for Past Imperfect and also a fresh film script, 'Blind School' (Act Three).Part of this has also involved a book in a different style, crossing the mythology-political thriller genre, which has been particularly succesful with foreign rights sales, adding Brazil, Turkey, Portugal and Bulgaria to my existing list of teritories. Putting my back-list on Kindle - which has seen the three titles so far listed all in the top-ten legal thrillers list on Amazon (again!). And finally penning a new novel in collaboration with TV producer Richard Belfield (for which we've become J.R. Mattfeld) to kick-start a crime-detective series set in 1890s New York, the first of which involves Jack the Ripper (yes, you heard right!). More on that later...
