posted on 10 May 2016

The Once and Future King by T. H. White illustrated by John Lawrence

Published in 1958, White’s re-imagining of the King Arthur legend takes plenty of liberties with the original source – Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur – and with history. Whoever the original Arthur was, it’s likely that he lived no later than the 6th century AD; however, White discards this and relocates the story into the late Middle Ages – but, hey, what’s seven centuries between friends?

White’s book is in fact a compendium of four books written at different times that takes Arthur from his childhood through his kingship and then focuses on the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere. A final fifth book was eventually published separately and posthumously in 1977 and was called The Book of Merlyn. Probably the most famous part of this story is the first instalment, The Sword In The Stone, which was comprehensively Disneyfied in 1963.

White’s book, although ostensibly a take on Britain’s mythical heritage, found a ready audience in a post-war Britain looking to redefine its identity and understand its position in the world. Ideas of chivalry and what it means to be British at a time when the British identity was most under threat resonated with older readers as well as the younger audience it was targeted at.

This splendid edition was published by The Folio Society and has been fabulously illustrated by John Lawrence. Lawrence’s woodcuts are liberally sprinkled through this edition and lend a superb at extra dimension to the tale. Each illustration is framed with a kind of organic and botanical border that gives a sense of uniformity to all the illustrations while allowing for plenty of invention and interpretation. I love the colours which are both muted and vibrant at one and the same time – it’s hard to justify an oxymoron like that but hopefully the examples of the illustrations here on this page will give you a clear sense of what I’m driving at.

There is also an excellent and very readable introduction by Kevin Crossley-Holland who seems to be the go-to author when it comes to myth and legend. His easy and engaging style makes the book so much more approachable.

This is a hefty volume and not a particularly cheap one. Copies are out there on the second hand market but you’ll have to pay over £20 to get hold of a decent copy. It is, however, well worth the expense because it’s more a work of art than a book.

 

Terry Potter

May2016