Cornwell was born in London in 1944. His father was Canadian airman William Oughtred [1] and his mother was Englishwoman Dorothy Cornwell, a member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. He was adopted and brought up in Thundersley, Essex, by the Wiggins family; they were members of the Peculiar People, a strict sect of pacifists who banned frivolity of all kinds, and even medicine up to 1930. Reacting to being raised by Christian Fundamentalists, he grew up rejecting all religions and became an atheist. [2] Easing into the Adventure: The first book introduces Pip having a fistfight with the local bully (to introduce the combat rules) before he or she meets with Merlin, gets starting spells/magic items, and is sent on an adventure.

Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: The later books in particular — the boss fight in Voyage of Terror allows you to return to two sections before the fight if you dies, and the last two books allow you to return to the section where you died. The literature surrounding the Grail can be divided into two groups. The first concerns King Arthur's knights visiting the Grail castle or questing after the object. The second concerns the Grail's earlier history in the time of Joseph of Arimathea. Gameplay and Story Integration: After defeating the "ghost" of Ansalom in book three, you find a copy of your spellbook on him. This one also has Resurrection, which prevents death once if successful. He wasn't a ghost; he had successfully cast Resurrection after you killed him, and then cast an Invisibility spell. But he's dead now. Invisibility (I.N.V.I.S.I.B.I.L.I.T.Y. for short) - This spell is an exception to the normal rules of magic in that it can only be cast once per adventure for a cost of 15 Life Points, and only in designated areas, but the effect renders Pip completely invisible. Cornwell was sent to Monkton Combe School in Somerset. He read history at University College London [5] between 1963 and 1966 [6] and worked as a teacher after graduating. He attempted to enlist in the British armed services at least three times but was rejected on the grounds of myopia.Nitze, William A. Concerning the Word Graal, Greal, Modern Philology, Vol. 13, No. 11 (Mar., 1916), pp. 681–684 . Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, which adapted at least the holiness of Robert's Grail into the framework of Chrétien's story. In Wolfram's telling, the Grail was kept safe at the castle of Munsalvaesche ( mons salvationis), entrusted to Titurel, the first Grail King. Some, not least the Benedictine monks, have identified the castle with their real sanctuary of Montserrat in Catalonia.

The opposing view dismissed the "Celtic" connections as spurious, and interpreted the legend as essentially Christian in origin. Joseph Goering identified sources for Grail imagery in 12th-century wall paintings from churches in the Catalan Pyrenees (now mostly moved to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), which present unique iconic images of the Virgin Mary holding a bowl that radiates tongues of fire, images that predate the first literary account by Chrétien de Troyes. Goering argues that they were the original inspiration for the Grail legend. [27] [28] Off with His Head!: It is possible to decapitate yourself with E.J. if you fail a dice roll to remove a magical collar that is choking you to death in Legion of the Dead. Strength Equals Worthiness: In the fourth book, Voyage of Terror, you can meet with the god Hephaestus himself, who has just forged an enchanted breastplate which is the best armor in the whole game. Hephaestus offers to give it to you — but only if you best him in combat. You can refuse, as when he starts announcing his stats, it looks like a completely unwinnable fight. But the god actually has a sense of fair play, and notably allows you to wear the breastplate before starting, and to give you the win if Hephaestus loses a set number of LIFE POINTS (instead of his huge total).If wielding a weapon, the number needed to hit may be lower, and extra damage will usually be inflicted. For instance, Excalibur Junior hits on a roll of 4 (hitting 91.7% of the time) and provides a bonus 5 points of damage. a b Lafferty, Hannah (31 January 2014). "Bernard Cornwell Talks The Pagan Lord, The Challenges of Historical Fiction, And Future Plans". Emertainment Monthly. Boston: Emerson College. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014 . Retrieved 9 June 2014. Chretien's works were popular reading and highly influential, even his unfinished Perceval, and inspired the poet Robert de Boron to write his own romance, Joseph of Arimathea, in which the Grail is transformed from a pagan symbol of fertility and healing to the cup Jesus Christ drank from at the Last Supper. Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in all four biblical gospels as a secret disciple of Jesus Christ who donated his time and tomb following the crucifixion. In medieval folklore, he came to Britain after Christ's resurrection carrying the Grail, the cup Christ drank from at the Last Supper, which Joseph used to catch Christ's blood in when he was on the cross, and he founded an abbey at Glastonbury.

The first three or four books in the GrailQuest series are excellent - they're well-written and have lots of humour, but also good stories. The use of maps allows the books to feel a lot bigger than their 200 or so sections, and there's a good combat system that allows for a lot more variety than, say, Fighting Fantasy's system did. Game mechanics such as the Dreamtime also add some more entertainment. The books get steadily harder from the fairly easy Castle of Darkness to the pinnacle of the series that is Gateway of Doom. As mentioned above, though, the big appeal of these books is the comedy. Running gags such as Merlin's homes and the Poetic Fiend, plus some wonderfully surreal situations such as the Vampire Carrot - if you're looking for funny gamebooks, I think these would be the obvious choice.

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Hair-Trigger Sound Effect: The Ghost Grunweazel (dum da dum dum!) in the book The Realm of Chaos is otherwise The Scottish Trope, as people avoid saying its name. Considering that every time the Ghost Grunweazel (dum da dum dum!) is mentioned, this sinister echo happens, it is understandable. The first time Pip hears it, he's quite freaked out. Film and other media [ edit ] Grail diary of Henry Jones, Sr. from the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade at the Hollywood Museum In the television series Knightfall (2017), the search for the Holy Grail by the Knights Templar is a major theme of the series' first season. The Grail, which appears as a simple earthenware cup, is coveted by various factions including the Pope, who thinks that possession of it will enable him to ignite another Crusade. Medium Awareness: The characters are all aware that they are in a gamebook, and talk freely about dice, LIFE POINTS, and section numbers. The story of the Grail and of the quest to find it became increasingly popular in the 19th century, referred to in literature such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Arthurian cycle Idylls of the King. A sexualised interpretation of the grail, now identified with female genitalia, appeared in 1870 in Hargrave Jennings' book The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries. [61]