The Circle, the UK paramilitary agency whose Knights carry the devices of the members of King Arthur’s Round Table, is hunting the Green Chapel, eco-activists allied to Robin Hood’s Merry Men. For the Knights, this quest is personal as well as political: the Chapel’s leader, Jory Taylor, is himself an errant Knight – and he has stolen the Holy Grail from the British Museum.
But this war is fought with modern weapons, and nowhere – from the Circle’s Thameside fortress to a Bristol squat, from the oldest pub in England to a music festival in Cheshire – will remain untouched.
Before long, the enmity between its greatest heroes will tear Britain apart.
Philip Purser-Hallard is a master craftsman. His stories are both cleverly constructed and wrought in the sharpest prose, and he's always a joy to read. Not to be missed. -- George Mann
Purser-Hallard takes urban fantasy back from fey vampires and rugged werewolves and puts it firmly back where it belongs, rooted deep in the myths and legends of old Britain. He combines a startlingly original premise with some bloody good story-telling. I'm in for the long run, and you should be too. -- Simon Morden (Philip K Dick Award winner, The Samuil Petrovich trilogy)
Philip Purser-Hallard has written a large number of short stories, four novellas and two previous novels.
In 2014 he edited anthologies about multiple Marses and about Sherlock Holmes in the afterlife.
His favourite Robin Hood actor is Michael Praed, and his favourite US TV series that gratuitously introduces King Arthur is Babylon 5.