Product Description

The year is 1199, the place the Welsh Marches. Young Arthur de Caldicot is given a shining stone in which his legendary namesake is revealed. In 100 short chapters that brilliantly evoke life in a medieval manor, stories of the boy King Arthur begin to echo and anticipate the secrets and mysteries that emerge in his own life. '... as bright and as vivid as the pictures in a Book of Hours. Deep scholarship, high imagination, and great gifts of storytelling have gone into this; I was spellbound.' Philip Pullman, The Guardian 'instantly evokes T H White's The Once and Future King in blending the pastoral idyll of a medieval manor with the myths of King Arthur. There the similarity ends - this is truly a crossover book, settling in the interesting space between children's and adult fiction.' The Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17669 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Young Arthur de Caldicott is anxious to grow up, spread his wings and become a knight. But for now he must content himself with the life he has in the bosom off his family and friends. One day one of these friends, the old and mysterious Merlin, gives Arthur a special stone, and from that moment his life becomes entwined with that of King Arthur himself...

Arthur:The Seeing Stone is an extraordinary novel, contemporary in feel but with its roots deep in the past. One hundred short chapters give snapshots of both the mythical world of King Arthur and the day-to-day existence of a young boy growing up in 1199, and as the two begin to touch on each other's lives the story develops into a multi-layered novel with a depth and intensity that maintains a page-turning, easy-to-read--yet at the same time challenging--quality that is somehow unique.

Arthur: The Seeing Stone is an absolute must-read, written with a rich and earthy gusto that, combined with Kevin Crossley-Holland's authorative attention to the details of the Middle Ages, quite simply takes the breath away. (Age 9 and over) --Susan Harrison

Booktrust, 100 Best Books, 2002
"…a fascinating story, rich in historical detail."

Review
"Fun, intelligent highly enjoyable stuff." (Time Out )

Customer Reviews

Suitable for all
In `Arthur-The Seeing Stone', Arthur is the thirteen-year-old son of a knight. The book begins with news that King Richard the Lionheart (Richard I) is dying. It is told by Arthur and reveals his ambition to become a squire and his fears of his brother, Serle. Just before John becomes king, Arthur's guide, Merlin, gives Arthur a seeing stone. In this stone he sees his other self becoming King of Britain. He also discovers that their lives are remarkably similar. This book tells of the typical life of a knight's son in 1199.
As well as being an absorbing and interesting story, `Arthur-The Seeing Stone' teaches simple history and inspires people to learn more about the period of time. It is the first in a trilogy. This book takes the interesting parts of the legend of King Arthur and combines them with the day-to-day life of a page. I would definitely recommend this book because it is very interesting.

Arthurian Legend seen from the eyes of a 13-year-old boy
Young Arthur, at the age of 13, in the year 1199, is given a beautiful obsidian stone by a man named Merlin. The boy Arthur lives a normal, if priveleged, existence as a page to his father on a wealthy manor in the Marches, just on the "England" side of the border with Wales. He lives together with his parents, his elder brother and younger sister, and he dreams of nothing other than one day becoming a Squire.

The stone seems perfectly normal at first, and then one day Arthur starts to see images in the stone and a story starts to emerge... a story featuring another young boy named Arthur!

The plot is really good, and with the awards that the book received, including winning the "Guardian Children's Fiction" prize, I was expecting it to be that good. However, I was quite disappointed to find that the text of this average-length book had been chopped up into a staggering 100 chapters, some just the length of a short paragraph!! I felt as though I literally "struggled" through to Chapter 33 as the text, for me, was lacking immediacy and flow!

I persevered, and my annoyance at the constant disruptions of thought faded as I was drawn into the lives or Arthur, his family, and their retainers, skilfully woven with the threads of Arthurian Legend. The book is built on solid foundations of well-researched historical evidence regarding the lives and customs of Britons at the turn of the thirteenth century. I now look forward to experiencing the rest of the Arthurian Legend through the eyes of young Arthur, in books two and three ("At the Crossing Places", and "King of the Middle March"). I only hope that the chapters become more substantial and terrible chapter headings such as "Mouthfuls of Air" (Lynne Truss would have a field day with this one!!) are avoided!

A good story - worth reading if you can persevere with the numerous chapters!

Absolutely brilliant!
This is one of the best books I have ever read. Due to the author's fantastic descriptions and vivid depictions of medieval manor life, you feel as if you have been temporarily absorbed into Arthur's world. It's a fascinating and very entertaining read.

Fortunately, the sequel is just as good but I did not like the third book as much (probably because I loved the whole medieval manor thing in the other two books, and because it features too many technical details about ships) but it's still worth a read.