Well now this is, I imagine, what you do not want. Beginning of the original in Middle English Sir Thomas Mallory himself:

HIt befel in the dayes of Vther pendragon when he was kynge of all Englond / and so regned that there was a mystickty duke in Cornewaill that helde warre ageynst hym long tyme / And the duke was called the duke of Tyntagil / and so by meanes kynge Vther send for this duk / chargyng hym to brynge his wyf with hym / for she was called a fair lady / and a passynge wyse / and her name was called Igrayne / So whan the duke and his wyf were comyn vnto the kynge by the meanes of grete lordes they were accorded bothe / the kynge lyked and loued this lady wel / and he made them grete chere out of mesure / and desyred to haue lyen by her / But she was a passyng good woman / and wold not assente vnto the kynge /.
No. But it is almost readable, though not in a really relax and enjoy it sort of way.
My Grandpa was an expert, not me. He always said our family (Carlyon)were ancestors of one the knights of King Mark of Cornwall , on whom the story of Arthur was based.Well. Now I am looking for a readable book based on Mallory's Morte d'Arthur. Watch this space...

There are several translations available online and very cheap too At college we were advised to read the Penguin Version (now a Penguin Classic and it is OK but a bit heavy still. BUT only 10p!
The stories are of course brilliant and show a great imagination on behalf of someone , nobody knows who. If there isn't some truth behind Arthur's Legends I will eat my Cornish hat!Good luck.

How would Tennyson's Idylls of the King suit?

And for another take on it altogether, TH White's Once and Future King covers the story quite well, I believe, though I mostly only remember The Sword in the Stone (which is quite charming and not much like the Disney version)

Dear ren33, I'm glad to hear of your researches, oh wise one!

Lol! I am sure Agony is much wiser than I! XX

I assure you all that I am busy taking notes re your suggestions. And I had to laugh at the excerpt ren33 provided regarding Mallory's writings. Good grief, it sounds worse than Canterbury Tales. Of course a decent translation is always a good idea, but I agree with you that there is probably some basis for all the Arthurian legends. Just seems to stand to reason, there are so many similar threads throughout the ages, that more or less jibe with each other. It seems hard to believe that someone just fabricated the thing out of whole cloth, if that's the phrase I want.

You might also be interested in Marion Zimmer Bradley's and Mary Stewart's takes on the subject, though they certainly put their own spins on the story. And of course it's always fun to read "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"

Hmm. Like Ren, I grew up in the south/south-west of England, although Alfred the Great was a bit closer to us in Wiltshire than the more western Arthur was with his magical overtones. Nonetheless, as a child growing up near the great stones, a king who could take a sword from a different stone and fight his enemies seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

You might want to start with Bernard Cornwell. He's better known for writing the series about Sharpe during the Napoleonic Wars that was made into a television series but he has written a trilogy about Arthur which I think is quite well researched. Well, researched as well as it can be given that most of what we think we know about Arthur is legend. He doesn't give us the same views of the characters as Disney, or Malory, but there's nothing wrong with that - what Disney does to British legends makes me sick!

The trilogy is called The Warlord Chronicles; the individual books are, in order:

The Winter King,
Enemy of God, and
Excalibur: A Novel of Arthur

Thanks for your continuing suggestions. Some I have read already but a long time ago, and flopsymopsy I think I have heard of Bernard Cornwell in connection with the "Sharpe" series but will definitely look up his Arthurian stuff. I know that it's all mostly fantasy (I can't bear any Disney treatments, though!), but I've long found the legends about Camelot and Avalon most alluring.

Just re-read "A Kiss Before Dying" from Ira Levin.

I really can't praise this one enough - it's an almost perfect example of its kind, the novel of suspense. Alfred Hitchcock would have filmed it perfectly.

It was written in 1953, so it's something of a period piece - we have people writing letters on trains and wearing hats with veils - but it's not dated in the sense that the characters' actions and motivations are still very relate-able. The narrative style is easy and conversational. Levin didn't write very many novels, but of the ones he did, almost all of them are classic, and this mostly forgotten gem certainly ranks with his more famous work like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Boys from Brazil".

I'm currently on "The Road to Little Dribbling" and enjoying it HUGELY! Bill Bryson has the knack of putting into words things you always thought but weren't able to express. And his insight and understanding of the British way of life is unparalleled! Highly recommended!

Finished up "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". I enjoyed it enough to order up the sequel from the library. I haven't seen the movie, is there anyone on here that has read the book and seen the movie. What did you think, did the movie follow along with the book? Or, was it like most movies that were made from books, a disappointment?

While waiting for the sequel to show at the library, I checked out a book called "The Lost Island" by Preston and Child. It turned out to be some light reading after the drama of 'Tattoo Girl' . It kind of reminded me of a Clive Cussler book. Don't get me wrong, that's not all bad, and it did raise some interesting scientific points. Nice read overall.

It's here, "The Girl Who Played With Fire". Checked it out and have started in on it. I will keep you posted.

I'm out.

"The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island"

Pretty classic Bill Bryson - if you liked "Notes from a Small Island", you will probably like this. He's turning into a bit of a curmudgeon, though - there's a fair amount of "kids these days" get-my-off-my-lawn ranting. He's funny enough that I forgive it, but let's not get too carried away, Bill.

'The Son' - Jo Nesbo

Just started 'The Stranger' by Harlan Coben. No idea where the story is going at the moment, but I'm enjoying the mystery of it all. I'll let you know how it goes - or maybe not...

I'm reading a Harlen Coben book, too - "Caught". And even though I'm halfway through, I have no idea where it's going. He's very good at constructing a mystery that leaves you mystified.

And a good thing, too, because that's what keeps me reading his books. Otherwise, I'd have given up on him years ago. I find many of his characters very irritating, and often incomprehensible. The middle class suburban lifestyle that he uses as the bland boring template on which to splash the colours of his plot bears so little resemblance to how anyone I know actually lives - I know that we're supposed to be getting a feeling of comfortable familiarity, so that he can then jolt us out of it, but I'm constantly getting jolted by the wrong things. The way the parents and teenagers interact, for example.

Just as an example - and this kind of thing happens in his books all the time - we have a TV reporter, widowed single mother of a 17 year old, she has raised her son alone since he was very small. She gets fired from her job, comes home and tells her son, and he grunts, asks no questions, gives no response. This doesn't bother her, doesn't even register - we're supposed to see this as "Oh, those teenagers, with their grunting and their not talking". Except that every single-mom teen that I know considers themself as a full member of the household, someone who has a voice in this kind of thing. Especially if there aren't other kids. I'm not saying they always have a good relationship, but they are more, oh, involved with their parent, just because it's been the two of them against the world for so long. In reality, this kid would be, possibly, worried about his mom's feelings. He would *certainly* be thinking about money - what does this mean for him? What does it mean to his plans for university - he's in his last year of high school. At the very least he'd say something like "Does this mean I lose my allowance?" But no, in Coben's world, teens are secretive beings who grunt and text each other on their phones and have to be nagged to do their homework, and that's what a teen character has to do, even if it's not even a little true to life for this particular character.

There's a Canadian writer, Lynwood Barclay, who treads the same territory as Coben - normal family man suddenly has something jarring and mysterious happen that makes no sense at all, and he has to fight his way through the lies and deception and upheaval to everything he thought he knew and understood. The plots are as twisted and hard to unravel as Coben's but the characters tend to behave like actual people - I'd recommend him to anyone who likes Harlen Coben.

Just finished 'The Stranger' which kept me intrigued till the end. However it was all tied up a little too nicely for my liking, but it was a compelling read nonetheless. I agree with your comments on his characterisation, agony, the teenage attitude was evident in this book too, with the sons of the 'hero' remaining very much on the periphery and showing little interest in what's happening around them. And I'll look forward to the next Linwood Barclay for a really good read!

Most of his books are just amusing, yes, but that one, I agree, is something more. They are almost all informative, too, though sometimes informative about things you don't really want any information on.

"I Could Go On Singing"

Now this is an odd one. It's a novelization of Judy Garland's last movie, written by John D MacDonald, of all people (MacDonald was a very prolific, well respected, and popular crime writer from the 50s into the 80s). It's from 1962, by which time MacDonald was pretty well established, churning out Gold Medal original paperbacks at the rate of a couple a year.

I collect MacDonald paperbacks, and had never heard of this until it turned up as an ebook from the local library. The story is essentially a melodrama, well outside of MacDonald's wheelhouse. He does a good job, but the plot is slight and there's really not much to be done with it. I can only assume he needed money at that time, and tossed this off in the hopes that the movie would be a huge hit and book sales would be healthy. The movie was not a huge hit.

Antonia Frazer- My History.
I am finding this really hard going.
Humourless where it could be full of the fun she could have had growing up in such a privileged background, with a family heavily involved in British politics. For such a famous writer , her style lacks imagination and at times reads like a list of celebrities.Antony Wedgewood-Benn whirled her round the floor at the ball.(Well, yes but he is a famed orator, a fascinating character, what did he say?) I have tried to enjoy this . I am failing at the moment.

I've never really understood why Antonia Frazer is as famous a writer as she is - none I've read of hers has struck me as particularly wonderful.