Kevin Crossley-Holland Books In Order

Arthur Trilogy Books In Order

  1. The Seeing Stone (2000)
  2. At the Crossing Places (2001)
  3. King of the Middle March (2003)

Viking Sagas Books In Order

  1. Bracelet of Bones (2011)
  2. Scramasax (2012)

Novels

  1. Havelok the Dane (1964)
  2. Dream of a Meeting (1970)
  3. King Horn (1973)
  4. Beowulf (1982)
  5. Storm (1985)
  6. The Fox and the Cat (1985)
  7. The Quest for Olwen (1988)
  8. The Stones Remain (1989)
  9. The Tale of Taliesin (1992)
  10. King Arthur’s World (2004)
  11. Outsiders (2005)
  12. Gatty’s Tale (2006)
  13. Thor and the Master of Magic (2007)
  14. Crossing to Paradise (2008)
  15. Waterslain Angels (2008)
  16. Heartsong (2015)
  17. Arthur: The Always King (2021)

Collections

  1. Wordho*ard (1969)
  2. Norse Myths (1970)
  3. Tales from the Mabinogion (1977)
  4. The Dead Moon (1982)
  5. British Folk Tales (1987)
  6. Short! (1997)
  7. Enchantment (2000)
  8. The Nightingale That Shrieked (2002)
  9. Viking! (2002)
  10. Tales from the Old World (2003)
  11. Short Too! (2011)
  12. The Penguin Book of Norse Myths (2018)
  13. Between Worlds (2018)
  14. The Animals Grimm: A Treasury of Tales (2019)
  15. Norse Tales (2020)
  16. Across the Rainbow Bridge (2021)

Picture Books

  1. The Green Children (1968)
  2. Pedlar of Swaffham (1971)
  3. Petal and Stone (1975)
  4. The Ugly Duckling (2001)
  5. How Many Miles to Bethlehem? (2004)
  6. The Riddlemaster (2016)

Chapter Books

  1. Stars of Mine (2013)

Anthologies edited

  1. Ghosts and Goblins (2001)
  2. Why the Fish Laughed (2002)
  3. The Exeter Book Riddles (2008)

Non fiction

  1. The Oxford Book of Travel Verse (1986)
  2. The New Exeter Book of Riddles (1999)
  3. The Magic Lands (2001)
  4. The Hidden Roads (2009)

Arthur Trilogy Book Covers

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Kevin Crossley-Holland Books Overview

The Seeing Stone

It is 1199 and young Arthur de Caldicot is waiting impatiently to grow up and become a knight. One day his friend’s father, Merlin, gives him a shining piece of obsidian, and his life becomes entwined with that of his namesake, the Arthur whose story he sees unfold in the stone. In this many layered novel, King Arthur is seen as a mysterious presence influencing not just one time and place, but many. The 100 short chapters are almost like snapshots, not only of the mythic tales of King Arthur, but the earthy, uncomfortable reality of the Middle Ages. Written in the direct, open voice of a real boy living in a time of uncertainty about the future, this story touches on the issues of war and peace, social inequity, religion, reason, and superstition.

At the Crossing Places

The second thrilling novel in Kevin Crossley Holland’s bestselling Arthur trilogyArthur de Caldicot has achieved his dream: He now serves as squire to Lord Stephen of Holt Castle. But this new world opens up fresh visions as well as old concerns. Arthur longs to escape the shadow of his unfeeling father and meet his birth mother. To marry the beautiful Winnie, but maintain his ties with his friend Gatty. And to become a Crusader, with all the questions of might and right involved. Just as he so brilliantly did in THE SEEING STONE, Kevin Crossley Holland weaves Arthurian legend with everyday medieval life in the unforgettable story of one hero’s coming of age.

King of the Middle March

It is 1202, and thousands of knights and footsoldiers are mustering in Venice for the Fourth Crusade. Among them is young Arthur de Caldicot, squire to Lord Stephen. It is thrilling to be part of this huge gathering; but as Christian falls upon Christian and Saracens draw their scimitars, Arthur’s eyes are opened to the realities of war. Looking into his seeing stone for guidance, he realises that the exploits of King Arthur and his knights, like those of the crusaders, are as grim as they are glorious. Meanwhile Arthur has his own concerns: Gatty, his betrothal, his dream of finding his mother, his relationship with his violent father and his churlish foster brother. When he finally returns to England, all he has lost and all he has won come together. War, romance, murder, family quarrels, power politics, the conflict between Christianity and Islam: all these are elements in a story packed with drama and colour. Its vivid picture of daily life in medieval times is shot through with earthy comedy and the magic of the Arthurian legends. Darker and deeper than the first two books, this is a marvellous ending to a trilogy that has utterly captivated its readers.

Beowulf

This is the story of a young man who travelled far across the sea to fight two terrifying monsters one who could rip a man apart and drink his blood, the other who lived like a sea wolf at the bottom of a dark, blood stained lake. The young hero’s name was Beowulf, and his story, first written in Anglo Saxon in the eighth century, has become one of the world’s most famous epics. Kevin Crossley Holland retells the story for children in quick paced, rhythmical prose accompanied by Charles Keeping’s striking illustrations. Together they bring to life the beauty and power of one of the first great English poems.

Storm

Annie lives with her elderly parents in a remote cottage. She is used to being alone. Every day she walks by the lonely marsh to school. Only in winter, when the wind howls in the trees, is Annie ever afraid. Her sister Willa is pregnant and Annie is overjoyed when she comes home to have her baby. Annie tells Willa the names of local plants and Willa tells Annie about the ghost, murdered by highwaymen, who is said to haunt the old forge nearby. Then, on a terrible night, with the phone lines down, Willa goes into labor. Annie is terrified of the ghost, but knows she must brave the Storm to fetch help. As she ventures into the night, a horseman swings into view. He offers to take Annie to town. Before she can protest, Annie finds herself lifted on to his saddle and off they set on an intense, dream like journey. Only once he has deposited her safely on the doctor’s doorstep, does the horseman reveal that he is the ghost she fears.

Gatty’s Tale

Of all the characters in The Seeing Stone and At the Crossing Places, it is Gatty the village girl steadfast, forthright, innocent and wise who has won the hearts of readers. This is her story, written down at her behest by her childhood friend and hero, Arthur de Caldicot.

Gatty’s dream is to follow Arthur to Jerusalem though she has not even understood that Jerusalem is farther away than Ludlow, and across the sea. As he sets out on the crusade, Gatty, unknown to him, follows. Her extraordinary journey on foot across Europe and towards the east makes a marvellous medieval adventure story.

Separate from the Arthur trilogy, this ambitious novel picks up many of its strands and characters but leaves fantasy behind to create a magnificently vivid and realistic picture of life and times in the Europe of 1202.

Thor and the Master of Magic

Thor decides to teach the Giants a lesson. But is his superhuman strength a match for the Master of Magic? Classic Norse story, by a master storyteller. Barrington Stoke specialise in books for reluctant, struggling and dyslexic readers.

Crossing to Paradise

Gatty is a field girl on a manor. She has never seen busy London or the bright Channel, the snowy Alps of France or the boats in the Venetian sea. She has not sung in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem or prayed at the manger in Bethlehem or been kidnapped, or abandoned, or kissed, or heartbroken. But all these things will change. As Gatty journeys with Lady Gwyneth and a prickly new family of pilgrims across Europe to the Holy Land, Kevin Crossley Holland reveals a medieval world as rich and compelling as the world of today it foresees and, in Gatty, a character readers will never forget.

Waterslain Angels

In the village of Waterslain in Norfolk, in the 1950s, a fragment from a carved angel’s wing is discovered. Maybe the wooden angels that once supported the church roof were not, after all, destroyed centuries ago, but spirited away to safety. Two children decide to find them. There are few clues, but a strange inscription on the church wall leads them into terrifying places up to the top of the church tower, down a tunnel where they are nearly drowned. Annie dreams of the man who was sent in by Cromwell to smash up the church, and of angels flying and falling. For Sandy, whose father, an American airman, was recently killed, the angels bring comfort. The whereabouts of the angels become clear to them but then they discover that other people are hunting for them, and are determined to stop the children at all costs. The friendship between the boy adjusting to a new life in his mother’s village, and the girl whose family have always lived on their remote farm, the haunting atmosphere of the Norfolk saltmarshes, and the strong sense of the past still present, give richness to a tense and fast paced story of detection for younger readers.

Norse Myths

The Scandinavian myths form a linked chain of stories, creating a mighty, fantastical world teeming with gods and goddesses, master smiths and magicians. Battles between gods and giants exist alongside unexpected love matches until the final days of destruction dawn, with their promise of rebirth. Using his talents as poet, translator and author, Kevin Crossley Holland brings the myths alive. He reveals a dynamic culture in which is reflected the Norseman’s spirit and confidence, his ruthlessness and cruelty, arrogance and generosity.

Tales from the Mabinogion

A retelling of the four books of the Mabinogion, a collection of Welsh medieval tales about the feats and exploits of legendary Welsh kings and princes.

Short!

In this collection of very short stories, none of the stories is more than two pages long, and some are much shorter. There are stories about ghosts, supermarkets, animals, adventures, and all kinds of things. Kevin Crossley Holland is an established writer, who has produced a number of books for OUP, and this is a short and sharp collection of funny, intriguing, and scary stories.

Enchantment

A brilliant collaboration between a great storyteller and one of the best loved of all illustrators brings us this wonderful book of twenty stories from all over England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It includes such old favourites as Tom Tit Tot and The Frog Prince, some seriously spooky ghost stories, and a whole range of tales of fairy magic and mystery. The stories were first published in Kevin Crossley Holland’s British Folk Tales Orchard, which Orion will reissue in its entirety as The Magic Lands in November. Emma Chichester Clark is at her very best in the ravishing, tender and humorous pictures that appear on almost every page, and Kevin Crossley Holland’s retellings are spellbinding. There can be no better introduction than this lovely book to the wealth of folk and fairy tales of these islands.

Tales from the Old World

Ten tales that sweep ancient Europe, from Iceland to England and from Greece to Denmark, giving a taste of the myth and folk tale of them all. This book is bursting with fantastic retellings of old favorites such as ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ and ‘Arthur the King.’ It is alive with grippingly told, unfamiliar stories such as ‘Godfather Death’ and ‘The Lady of Stavoren.’ There’s a tale in here to thrill, delight, or chill every reader.

How Many Miles to Bethlehem?

Two modern masters illuminate the Nativity story, creating a sumptuous gift book for families to cherish. Mary, great with child. The lively donkey. The dignified wise men. The glorious angels. All the beloved figures of the nativity story are given new life by acclaimed poet and novelist Kevin Crossley Holland, who links their tales into a chain of voices revealing the miracle and meaning of Christmas. Peter Malone’s illustrations glow with the same majestic grace. This is a book for art lovers to admire, poets to praise, and families to read together and treasure.

The Exeter Book Riddles

The ninety six Anglo Saxon riddles in the eleventh century Exeter Book are poems of great charm, zest, and subtlety. Ranging from natural phenomena such as icebergs and storms at sea to animal and bird life, from the Christian concept of the creation to prosaic domestic objects such as a rake and a pair of bellows, and from weaponry to the peaceful pursuits of music and writing, they are full of sharp observation, earthy humor and, above all, a sense of wonder. The main text of this volume contains Kevin Crossley Holland’s newly revised translations of the seventy five of these fascinating and discursive riddles that are fully extant, while a further sixteen are translated in the notes.

The New Exeter Book of Riddles

The New Exeter Book of Riddles‘, compiled and edited by Kevin Crossley Holland and Lawrence Sail, is a lively and intriguing riposte to the famous collection of Anglo Saxon riddles in the original Exeter Book. A hundred contemporary poets, among them Alan Brownjohn, Gillian Clarke, Vicki Feaver, Michael Longley, Roger McGough and Kit Wright, make their distinctive and teasing contributions to the long tradition, which goes back to riddles found on Babylonian wax tablets. The range of form and tone is matched by the variety of subjects, some of which would scarcely have been out of place in the original ‘Exeter Book’, while others DNA, a supermarket trolley, a getaway car could only be late twentieth century. Readers old and young will find plenty to delight and challenge them here: and in a riddle delight and challenge are inseperable.

The Magic Lands

A magnificent book of 55 folk, fairy and ghost stories from all over Britain and Ireland. Taken from original sources and then brilliantly retold in a fresh and modern way, this is the most comprehensive and authoritative collection written in the last twenty years. A handsome trade paperback with notes and sources. Each story has a beautiful opening illustration by Emma Chichester Clark, a major illustrator. First published by Orchard Books as BRITISH FOLK TALES, it attracted rave reviews: ‘outstanding’ Naomi Lewis in The Observer ‘a sourcebook of folklore no home with children should be without’ The Independent

The Hidden Roads

This is not a misery memoir, not sensationalist and not a celebrity memoir. In these luminous pages, Kevin Crossley Holland, well known poet and one of the country’s most distinguished writers for children, visits the foreign land of childhood. From nights spent listening to stories told by his composer father and going to the 1948 Olympics through to idyllic cycle rides and discovering the first thrill of girls these pages are full of anecdote, observation, and the old made new. This is also a book about budding self awareness, the meeting place of actuality and imagination and the ways in which a writer may draw on the quarry of childhood. Above all, The Hidden Roads revolves around the sanctity and splintering of family, and the bonding of brother and sister, and is steeped in the landscapes and layers of England.

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