The 'Arthur' trilogy has sold close to one million copies worldwide and 500,000 copies in the UK. THE SEEING STONE won the Guardian Children's Fiction Award. The trilogy has been sold in 21 languages and the first two books. KING OF THE MIDDLE MARCH in hardback has sold over 26,500 copies. "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. 'breathtakingly brilliant' Anne Fine, The Financial Times. Major marketing campaign to promote entire 'Arthur' trilogy. Author appearances at key literary and children's festivals.
Kevin Crossley-Holland won the Carnegie Medal in 1985 for STORM. His many notable books for adults and children include poetry, classic retellings and anthologies. He has written and presented many BBC radio programmes and is a frequent speaker at schools and libraries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
"The trilogy is an ambitious and brilliantly realised work, which informs and astounds." -- Joanne Owen, Borders Bookshop Bookseller Buyer's Guide Highlight, 11 June 2003 "...the multi-layered conclusion to a most original trilogy...The style is distinctive; short, kaleidoscopic chapters marked by uncluttered, precise sentences. Legend and historical fact are subtly intertwined to make an exciting medieval adventure relevant to today's conflicts and beliefs." -- Lesley Agnew The Bookseller, 25 July 2003 "If you like a good historical saga then you've probably already read The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing-Places, the first two-thirds of Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy. King of the Middle March weighs in at 432 pages and is a fairly chunky read...At times funny, at times magical and at times dark, King of the Middle March more than repays the effort" -- John Crace Guardian Children's Books Supplement, Autumn 2003 "Crossley-Holland is, of course, a poet, and the simplicity, musicality and laconic directness of his writing reflects this." The Independent, 31 October 2003 "...a dramatic conlusion to what has been a wonderfully inventive perspective on Arthurian legend...full of contemporary relevance." Hampstead & Highgate Express, 31 Oct 03 "With King of the Middle March, Kevin Crossley-Holland triumphantly concludes his trilogy about the two Arthurs...Arthur's breathless diary entries have an immediacy and wonder" -- Jan Mark Times Educational Supplement, 14 Nov 03 "...conjures up a vivid picture of medieval life combined with the magic of Arthurian legends." Financial Times, 29 November 2003 "King of the Middle March makes a fitting elegiac end to a remarkably grown-up sequence." Guardian, 29 November 2003
"The trilogy is an ambitious and brilliantly realised work, which informs and astounds." -- Joanne Owen, Borders Bookshop Bookseller Buyer's Guide Highlight, 11 June 2003 "...the multi-layered conclusion to a most original trilogy...The style is distinctive; short, kaleidoscopic chapters marked by uncluttered, precise sentences. Legend and historical fact are subtly intertwined to make an exciting medieval adventure relevant to today's conflicts and beliefs." -- Lesley Agnew The Bookseller, 25 July 2003 "If you like a good historical saga then you've probably already read The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing-Places, the first two-thirds of Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur Trilogy. King of the Middle March weighs in at 432 pages and is a fairly chunky read...At times funny, at times magical and at times dark, King of the Middle March more than repays the effort" -- John Crace Guardian Children's Books Supplement, Autumn 2003 "Crossley-Holland is, of course, a poet, and the simplicity, musicality and laconic directness of his writing reflects this." The Independent, 31 October 2003 "...a dramatic conlusion to what has been a wonderfully inventive perspective on Arthurian legend...full of contemporary relevance." Hampstead & Highgate Express, 31 Oct 03 "With King of the Middle March, Kevin Crossley-Holland triumphantly concludes his trilogy about the two Arthurs...Arthur's breathless diary entries have an immediacy and wonder" -- Jan Mark Times Educational Supplement, 14 Nov 03 "...conjures up a vivid picture of medieval life combined with the magic of Arthurian legends." Financial Times, 29 November 2003 "King of the Middle March makes a fitting elegiac end to a remarkably grown-up sequence." Guardian, 29 November 2003
Gr 7 Up-A glorious and uplifting conclusion to the trilogy. As before, Arthur de Caldicot tells his story, which this time finds the teen on an island off the coast of Venice waiting for a Crusade to begin. He is full of both wonder at his surroundings and the multinational band of men and anxiety over what is expected of him. Arthur is knighted and takes his oath to defend God seriously, but he is conflicted to learn that the Saracens are educated and devout people not unlike the Europeans. At the forefront of his thoughts is Merlin's admonition to keep asking questions. When money and politics wreak havoc with the plans for the Crusade, Arthur becomes disillusioned, and he faces a crisis of faith when the Venetians bring the Crusaders into an internal conflict to siege the city of Zara. Concurrently, Sir Stephen, Arthur's lord, is wounded and must be taken home to England, and because of duty, Arthur takes him and leaves the Crusade. Parallel to Arthur's own quest is that of legendary King Arthur and the Grail knights, whom Arthur watches in his seeing stone. He watches as Camelot is thrown into chaos, and he learns that not all battle ends in glory and that treachery exists even there. In a return home at Easter that is full of symbolism, Arthur finds answers to lifelong questions. Whether readers are familiar with the two previous Arthur sagas or not, they will be gratified by the majestic resolution to the parallel stories of Sir Arthur's coming of age and King Arthur's demise.-Cheri Dobbs, Detroit Country Day Middle School, Beverly Hills, MI Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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