by Adam Thorpe

Who was Robin Hood? Romantic legend casts him as outlaw, archer and hero of the people, living in Sherwood Forest with Friar Tuck, Little John and Maid Marian, stealing from the rich to give to the poor - but there is no historical proof to back this up.  The early ballads portray a quite different figure: impulsive, violent, vengeful, with no concern for the needy, no merry band, and no Maid Marian.  Hodd provides a possible answer, in the form of a medieval document rescued from a ruined church on the Somme, and translated from the original Latin.  The testimony of an elderly monk, it describes his life as Much the Minstrel with the half-crazed bandit Hodd in the greenwood who, following the thirteenth-century principles of the 'heresy of the Free Spirit', believes himself above God and beyond sin.  Hodd and his crimes would have been forgotten without Much's minstrel skills, and it is the old monk's cruel fate to know that not only has he given himself up to apostasy and shame but that his ballads were responsible for turning the murderous felon Robert Hodd into the most popular outlaw hero and folk legend of England, Robin Hood.  Written with his characteristic depth and subtlety, his sure understanding of folklore, his precise command of detail, Adam Thorpe's ninth novel is both a thrilling re-examination of myth and amoving reminder of how human innocence and frailty fix and harden into history.

Published by Vintage at £8.99

'Adam Thorpe's novel is richly enjoyable on many levels readers familiar with medieval literature will admire the virtuoso skill of elegant pastiche ... of middle English its world view trembling always between dread and delight.  But no prior knowledge of the Robin Hood legend is necessary to appreciate the lustrous prose, the humanity and the exuberant inventiveness of this strange and lovely book.' Jane Shilling, The Telegraph (five stars)

'[Thorpe] has an uncanny ability to create and inhabit a peculiar consciousness ... the result is a fascinating and complex novel - as remarkable in its way as Ulverton, but in no way resembling it.' Henry Power, Times Literary Supplement

'[Thorpe] constructs a tour de force around an elusive thirteenth-century figure who may, or may not, have been the original of the fantasy Robin Hood we think we know and love. Let's hope this year's Booker lot are up to estimating thi swonderfully subtle and layered book at its true worth.' Gillian Tindall, Literary Review