A Good Deliverance by Toby Clements is many things, many stories. A story of one man’s life. Of the writing of a great courtly chronicle. Of wins and losses on foreign battlefields. Of the relationship of an imprisoned old man and the young boy who brings his food. Above all, it is about the power of story. The prison confession of Sir Thomas Malory, writer of Le Morte d’Arthur, husband, father, landowner, soldier, courtier, politician and hopeless romantic, is wittily told, bringing a new perspective to the Wars of the Roses. Thomas, an admirer of knightly tales, honorable battles, courtly love, is in his fifties when he is arrested and imprisoned at Newgate jail. These are times of political and civil unrest. His offence is unknown to him and while expecting the step of his lawyer bringing news of a pardon, he awaits his execution. The person he sees most frequently is the twelve year old son of the prison warder. This boy brings his food twice a day, he also brings gossip and curiosity. And so in his tales to this boy, Malory tells the story of his life.
For a story that essentially takes place within four walls, this is a dynamic book that I didn’t want to put down. Clements has created a fictional character from a real man of whom little is known. Historians have a variety of possible noblemen who may have been the real Malory and this gives Clements plenty of room to create a character full of love, of conflict, of ambition often misjudged or misplaced, and of optimism. His life has been a perilous one full of sieges and battles in foreign countries, of disputes with unworthy lords, of brushes with royalty, of falling in love, sometimes unwisely. It is in short an echo of the courtly tales of love and honour surrounding King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The prison boy, desperate for Malory to get to the tale about fighting at Agincourt alongside King Henry V, is treated to retellings of tourneys and swords, of ships and duels and strange lands. He also learns his letters.
When the boy is absent at his duties, Malory’s story continues chronologically for the reader as the bits between the battles and feuds are retold. The pile of papers in his coffer demonstrates that Malory is rewriting the legends of Arthur, Lancelot etc. As he tidies, amends, obfuscates, shortens and lengthens the Arthurian myths, how, we should wonder, is he editing his own life story and why. To make it more entertaining for the boy, to gild his own legacy, to prove his innocence of whatever crime of which he is accused.
This is a funny, clever, entertaining story about a well-known period of English history, told from an unusual perspective. In Malory, Clements has created a sympathetic character who means the best but often fails to live up to his own dreams.
Engaging. Entertaining. Unusual.
PS. Despite the sudden ending, this is rumoured to be the first of two books about Thomas Malory.

Read my reviews of the first two Kingmaker novels by Toby Clements:-
WINTER PILGRIMS #1KINGMAKER
BROKEN FAITH #2KINGMAKER

If you like this, try:-
‘Cecily’ by Annie Garthwaite
‘A Column of Fire’ by Ken Follett #3KINGSBRIDGE
‘The King’s Messenger’ by Susanna Kearsley 

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:-