Igraine the Brave

Although Igraine is the daughter of great magicians, she would rather be sorting out the world through knightly endeavours, battling against gender stereotypes and the family tradition which her older brother, Albert, has followed. All comes to a head when Osmund the Greedy and the evil Spiky Knight lay siege with their army to Igraine’s castle at the moment when her parents have turned themselves accidentally into non-magical pigs. While Igraine ventures forth to bring back the giant’s red hairs essential to their recovery, her brother holds the fort/castle. As well as the red hairs, Igraine brings back the Sorrowful Knight from the Mount of Tears and together, mixing magic and great and courageous knightly actions, they take on the bad knights. This is fiction of wonderful invention, with magical serpents, mice and a talking cat as more than casual extras, told with the leisure and pleasure of a skilled storyteller able to pace events with such control that between the beginning and the probably expected end we have had such larks and been wonderfully amazed – and entertained by the author’s own line drawings which complement the telling perfectly. Igraine herself has the verve and spirit which may demand further adventures – please.