Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169257 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 400 pages

THE BOOKSELLER
'Writing of this quality is made to last... a classic in the true sense of the word'

Review
'Writing of this quality is made to last... a classic in the true sense of the word' (THE BOOKSELLER )

'The book captures a world very different from our own' (DAILY EXPRESS )

'Kevin Crossley-Holland has a real knack for telling a story well' (BIRMINGHAM POST )

'A gripping historical that is dramatic, touching, compelling and will pull at the heartstrings time and time again' (MY CHILD )

'With strong, believable characters, and a tremendous picture of medival life, this moving, hopeful story plays with language and offers a wonderful, satisfying ending' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

BIRMINGHAM POST
'Kevin Crossley-Holland has a real knack for telling a story well'

Customer Reviews

A joyful, tear-jerking book

Incredible! Once more Kevin Crossly-Holland makes a superb creation! This book does not give you time to slump back in your seat, for once it's done with one tantalising moment it's on to another. Short, snappy sentences are perfect for this type of book. Again Holland is pure genius!

In the year 1203 we meet Gatty (servant to Sir John) who has a voice of an untrained angel. One day Sir John hears her singing in the field and contacts his good friend Lady Gwyneth who states that she is in need of a second chamber maid and Gatty's voice may be just the thing she needs; because Lady Gwyneth and some associates are going on a dangerous and daring pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the holy land, but who knows whether they will make it...

This is a story of plain field girl who faces thieves, murderous Saracens and ghastly men. But once she gets through all the tasks that await her there is a glorious prize to be had - that no one would ever have dreamt of!

It amazes me how much Kevin Crossly's writing can touch someone so much compared to his other creations.
Beautifully written, Gatty's Tale devours a medal for the tenderness but simplicity of story.

While reading you totally get to know Gatty and the rest of the characters and begin to feel their worries and woes.

All in all I would recommend this book to anyone!

Robyn

Very Enjoyable
Paraphrased from the back blurb on the paperback:
'In the year 1203, nine companions set out from Wales on a great pilgrimage across Europe to Jerusalem. Not all of them will come home. At the heart of this story is Gatty, the field-girl. Eager, bold and resolute, wide open to new experiences, she has an extraordinary journey of her own to make'

Gatty - short for Gertrude - is a character who features in Kevin Crossley Holland's Arthur trilogy, about a 12th century boy with a link to the Arthurian legends. I have read the first one - The Seeing Stone - and enjoyed it, but not the other two. This one is a spin off about one of the characters in the trilogy, but it does stand completely alone. Gatty is an ignorant, but not unintelligent peasant girl who is having to fend for herself because all of her close relations are dead. She is taken as a female companion by Lady Gwyneth, who wants to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Gatty, who has only been as far as the next village in her short life, suddenly finds herself crossing oceans and land masses in the company of Lady Gwyneth and other members of the community. There's Lady Gwyneth's spoiled, petty attendant, Nest. Snout, who has a cleft palate and hopes for a cure in Jerusalem, Nakin the wily merchant, and several others, each with their idiosyncrasies. The pilgrimage takes them over the Alps and to Venice and Cyprus and for some of them, the Holy Land. After that, there's the matter of the journey home....
This is the story of Gatty's journey, the physical, the emotional, the spiritual. From being a delightful but somewhat thoughtless and foolish adolescent, she learns wisdom and grace, but without ever losing the shining quality of innocence she has about her.
The novel is aimed at the Young Adult market. I would say that a good reader from age ten onwards would have no trouble with it, but it is written in such a way that it will appeal to adults too and it is certainly of an adult length. For readers wanting non explicit historicals this one will absolutely fit the bill. There's an accidental pregnancy and there are moments of violence, but everything of a graphic nature happens off screen and there is nothing in the content to frighten the horses so to speak. It's a companionable, page-turning narrative, although not edge of the seat. Having recently been mired in the vile and bizarre goings on in Ariana Franklin's The Death Maze, this novel felt like a sparkling, refreshing shower in comparison and was just what I needed.
Kevin Crossley Holland is a poet and it shows in his descriptions and thinking processes. There are some beautiful moments of prose in the narrative and some lovely observations. Someone says that a pen drinks the darkness (ink) in order to create illumination on the page.
Quibbles? The usual accuracy ones. I was pulled out of the story by the ship they used to cross the channel having cabins and a wheel house - ummm not in 1203 it wouldn't! Come to that, it wouldn't have a wheel to put in the wheel house! I don't understand how an author of this stature can make such a basic mistake! There's a scene in a livery stable where everyone is mounting up on horses of all different breeds - some of which would have been very expensive an Arab stallion for e.g. or an Andalusian. Somehow I think not. The interraction between the classes is also a little too fluid and modern. Gatty is accepted by her social superiors with far too much ease and familiarity. However the above are nit-picks. Most of the time the author makes a good stab at Medieval mindset and I thoroughly enjoyed travelling with Gatty and her companions and watching her grow and change.
Four and a half stars and 8.5 out of 10. Very well worth the read.

This is a lovely book...
I have not read the Arthur trilogy (although they sit on my shelves) and now I am not sure I ever will. Because reading this beautiful and exciting story was enough - I am not sure I want to know more of Gatty than I learned from this. In my sixties as I am, it is not often I find my eyes filled with tears (of the right sort) at the end of a book. Do read it.