This is part of a Series called Knight's Tales.
There are a lot of books with allegedly humourous takes on the traditional tales of knights and days of yore. And having been obsessed with all things chivalry for nigh on three years, my boys have seen them all. Ballerina knights, dragons who eat only tinned pineapple, pirate grandmas - you name it and we've read the book.
At first I thought they were a useful antidote to the conventional - especially for littlies who needed gentle nudges to think beyond strict gender-roles, brawn over brains, battle-based climaxes and other cliches of childhood. But it started to seem a bit lazy when authors relied only on such zany twists to tell a tale. We wanted more depth, more engagement with the characters. And anyway, all this variation didn't really even seem particularly funny to them; they weren't familiar enough with the basics of the story.
What we needed was a well-told tale of the gallant knight. Heroic, and honourable, but also humble, humourous and human. While the first chapter did not bode well, in which Lancelot presented as a preening peacock, his character develops with each new chapter, and Lancelot first out-lances, then outwits and finally outdoes the kindness of others, and eventually seeks a quiet retirement.
It was perfectly pitched for reading aloud to the youngsters, and managed a nice balance of non-preachy morals as well as humour that had them laughing out loud. In bed. In a most unsleepy manner.
We are on the lookout for others by this author. I understand he has a series called Squires Tales for slightly older readers.
