New Releases by Julian Branston

This sparkling tale of crazed knights, thwarted love, and literary rivalry is set against the background of a mighty empire that is suffering from a century of reckless wars and a ruling hierarchy stultified by patronage and ritual.

In 17th-century Valladolid, Spain's new capital, Miguel Cervantes is busy writing his comic novel, Don Quixote. Issued in instalments, it is fast making him the most popular author in the country, when three potential disasters strike: Cervantes discovers that there is a real Don Quixote, just like the character he thought he'd invented; a jealous poet concocts a scheme involving one of the novel's other characters in order to make Cervantes a laughing stock; and he falls in love with a beautiful, widowed but unavailable Duchess. Many duels, misunderstandings, politicking and betrayals later, Don Quixote himself comes to Cervantes' rescue. A wonderful evocation of Spain in the 17th century peopled with a cast of Chaucerian characters, this is a comedy in the mediaeval sense of the word.