Arthur with Amy Jeffs - in conversation with Helen Carr

Thrilled to welcome Amy Jeffs to Bristol for her new book, Arthur: A New Life, in conversation with award-winning historian & author, Helen Carr.

Arthur: A New Life

It is said that a monument now stands before the high church of Caerleon: an anvil pierced through with a sword. It is said that the sword can only be taken by the Britons' rightful king...

From Sunday Times bestseller Amy Jeffs', Arthur: A New Life mines the deep, elusive seams of a story we think we all know: the legend of King Arthur.

But here he is anew: a larger-than-life warlord, a hero raised by fairies, a leader of the wild hunt, a monster-slayer, lying wounded under the ash cloud, longing to rise again. Tracing an epic story from Merlin's conception and the building of the Round Table to the abduction of Guinevere and King Arthur's ambitious quest for Empire, this Arthur is as real as any other, brought back to life from the earliest sources. Drawing out the dark and beautiful stories from the original medieval and early modern texts, Amy guides the reader from citadels through forests, into volcanoes, caves and riverbanks and beyond, even as far as Hell and the Otherworld.

Going further than merely the stories, she provides incisive commentary about each tale, emphasising the legends' crafted nature and their symbiotic relationship with the political cultures of contemporary medieval Europe. Thirty original linocut illustrations map the inky Arthurian myth-scape, darkened by time, familiar as a dream.

Amy Jeffs

Dr Amy Jeffs’ has a PhD in Art History from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Amy has researched medieval pilgrim souvenirs at the British Museum, and worked in the British Library’s department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts. She is a Senior Research Associate at Girton College at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Amy’s previous books are Storyland: A New Mythology of Britain, a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year, Wild: Tales from Early Medieval Britain, Saints: Medieval Legends of Heroes, Humans and Magic and Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads. She has also written a children’s edition of Storyland.

Helen Carr

Helen Carr is an award nominated writer, historian specialising in medieval history and public history.

Author of the best-selling, The Red Prince: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, published in spring 2021 and listed in the Times and Sunday Times best books of 2021. The Red Prince was shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography.