The Table Of Less Valued Knights - Couverture souple

Longlisted for the 2015 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

Sir Humphrey du Val of the Table of Less Valued Knights – Camelot's least prestigious table, with one leg shorter than the others so that it has to be propped up with a folded napkin – doesn't do quests ... until he meets Elaine, a damsel in distress with a secret to hide.

Meanwhile, Queen Martha of Puddock is on the run from an arranged marriage to the odious Prince Edwin of Tuft. But an encounter with the Locum of the Lake (standing in for the full-time Lady) leaves her with a quest of her own: to find her missing brother, long believed dead.

The two quests collide, introducing a host of Arthurian misfits, including a freakishly short giant, a twelve-year-old crone, an amorous unicorn, and a magic sword with a mind of her own.

With Gods Behaving Badly Marie Phillips showed that she has a rare gift for comedy, giving the Greek Gods an ingenious contemporary twist. In The Table of Less Valued Knights it's Camelot's turn, and you'll never see a knight in shining armour in the same way again.

"As if Jane Austen were rewriting Terry Pratchett: snorts and chortles plus elegant eyebrow-raising... Bold literary and historical misadventures, told with a twist and a lightness of touch." (Ian Sansom Guardian)

"The reader can enjoy the same level of affectionate detail that the Pythons brought to Monty Python and the Holy Grail... Phillips clearly delights in the world of [King Arthur] and...subverts fantasy motif in refreshing and absurd ways... Very good fun." (Leonora Craig Cohen Literary Review)

"The Table of Less Valued Knights infects Arthurian legend with a brio not seen since Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (New Statesman)

"Very funny... It’s a real joy to read a novel that makes you snort out loud with laughter." (Skinny)