Allingham Tristan's Quest

Annotation

Published posthumously by the author's sons, The Grey Haired Knights is a series of four whimsical fantasy novels set in the present day and drawing on the legend of King Arthur for their inspiration. King Arthur, anxious that people might forget his ancient promise to return and put to rights all that has gone amiss, sends Merlin forward to the twenty first century to keep alive the spirit and dream of Camelot. Bureaucracy has incarcerated four men, all approaching seventy, in a dreary rehabilitation unit. Arthur Thomas, the eldest, is worried that boredom is reducing their zest for life and persuades each man to tell a story. Unknown to them, but known to the reader, Merlin chooses Arthur's eloquence to inspire him and his three companions to take on the mantle of the Grey Haired Knights, each to seek and find a year long quest and vow to then return and relate their adventure. Aged sixty-two and after a lifetime working on cruise liners and in the bars of the Costas, Tristan is facing a future of penury. For his Quest he sets of to London to make his fortune. He fails at this but his experiences during the year rebuild his confidence and self-esteem and see him established as the successful leader of a life affirming charity.