This novella is a retelling of ‘Peredur son of Efrog’, a medieval Arthurian tale of a daring young knight defending maidens, killing witches and righting wrongs as a good Christian. Here Peredur’s quest is to escape the estate that has ruined the lives of his father and brothers, and seen his mother collapse into alcoholism, as he heads off in search of an absent, imaginary guardian named Arthur.
Cynan Jones was born in 1975. His first novel, The Long Dry (2007), won a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors and has been translated into Italian, Arabic and French (“A book of moving beauty”, Le Monde). Everything I Found on the Beach, was published by Parthian in 2011, and his work appeared in Granta 119: Britain (2012). He lives near Aberaeron in west Wales.