Neil Fairbairn

This Traveller’s Guide inevitably invites comparisons with Geoffrey Ashe’s A Guidebook to Arthurian Britain (1980 and 1983, confusingly reissued as The Traveller’s Guide to Arthurian Britain in 1997). This would be unfortunate as the two are different animals, each with its own particular strengths and weaknesses, though both include illustrations and maps.

The first obvious thing about Fairbairn’s Guide is that it is not only a hardback but also larger than Ashe’s paperback Guidebook, not pocket-sized. Certainly it is glossier, and this may commend itself more to the armchair traveller, especially as the evocative monochrome photographs by Michael Cyprien are more of a delight than Ian Newsham’s often risible line drawings in the Guidebook (which include the mortally wounded Arthur, en route in the barge for Avalon, in the anachronistic 14th-century armour of the Black Prince).

Secondly, Breton Arthurian sites are included by Fairbairn (hence the “kingdoms” of the title), and though many of these are historically dubious, to say the least, they make for a sense of completeness. However, Ashe stuck to Britain, and did so in the 80s with the authority then of well over a quarter of a century’s study.

It would be difficult to make a choice between Fairbairn (Alderley Edge to Wookey Hole) and Ashe (Aberffraw to Zennor). If faced with this dilemma, do as I did and buy them both. But do make sure you get the 1997 Gothic Image edition of the Ashe book (retitled The Traveller’s Guide to Arthurian Britain) with, yes, monochrome photos as well as new location maps.

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