Philip Reeve - Here Lies Arthur

Hmmm, I thought when it was time to pick up the 2008 Carnegie winner. The Arthurian legend re-told again, all round tables and heroic deeds and ladies in lakes offering up Excalibur? Done to death. Why would anyone have needed yet another version of this classic-but-clichéd stuff in 2008, never mind it winning the top children's book award? Oh, hang on, it's a realistic retelling of the age-old tale, more mud and blood and gore than misty legendary stuff. Unfortunately, the first thing that sprang to my mind upon learning this was the mediocre (and I'm being generous there) 2004 film "reimagining" with Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.

Here Lies Arthur, however, concocts something more than a little different from either of the 2 approaches above. It's well-written and extremely atmospheric in its own way - the descriptions of battles, sights and smells by the narrator, Gwyna, so simple but so vividly drawn, placing us right in the thick of the battlefield/hideouts/wherever with the characters without Reeve ever needing to go over-the-top with detail and background information. It turns many of the original characters and stories associated with Arthur inside and out. It makes the man himself more of a swaggering, arrogant buffoon who gets lucky than a hero for the ages. It weaves the stories of Gwyna and her male counterpart, Peredur, in and out of the main narrative throughout the book to raise some perceptive and interesting questions about gender identity and the pressures and worries of confirming to these stereotypes.

All of which combines to make Here Lies Arthur a surprisingly contemporary read, and much like its narrator, a book that consistently defies and refuses to conform to "normal" expectations. Myrddin, Gwyna's master, is of course Merlin under a slightly adjusted name and with all the usual magical trappings associated with the character stripped away. This Merlin is a spin doctor - an Alastair Campbell for the 5th century, if you will. It is he who conjures up the stories and myths around Arthur's average, at best, character and achievements and provides the basis for the legends as we know them today. Reeve makes a strong and recurrent point with this material about the power of stories, and more pertinently, the power of stories to take on lives of their own and to inspire, motivate or more often than not to cause damage and fear. In a world were conflicting narratives and misinformation is available at the click of a button, this theme could hardly be more relevant.

This is thought-provoking yet action-packed work; a story that challenges our prejudices and forces us to think twice and scratch beneath the surface rather than taking what we see at face value. To have taken material unpromising due to its overuse in literature and fashioned something new and exciting from it is not just commendable; Philip Reeve has pulled off the near-impossible. Surprisingly excellent.