Sir Thomas Malory, a minor knight, is in Newgate Prison not sure of the charged against him. As he awaits information he reflects on his life with the jailer's son. Malory has always loved the ancient romance tales of King Arthur yet his life has seemed far from this.
I really enjoyed this book as it is detailed about the life of Malory, but particularly the Duke of Bedford's campaign in France which encompassed the rise and death of Joan of Arc. There is lots of period detail and, although the sheer number of characters can get confusing, it's a tale full of pathos.

A Good Deliverance is a fictional account of Thomas Malory, the man who wrote the famous Le Morte D'Arthur and, in doing so, perpetuated the myths of Arthur and his knights, queen, and, of course, Lancelot.

Our Thomas Malory, as presented by Toby Clements, is a man of his time, living a life that even he questions for his feelings of inadequacy. He doesn't fight at Agincourt, and indeed, his deeds of martial glory come from a battle few remember. Locked up for a crime we, the readers, never truly understand, he finds a willing listener to his life's tales in the son of his prison guard.

This is an intriguing tale, told in an unconventional way. Wary of losing the interest of his audience, much of the tale is told as an aside, the parts that his young listener won't be interested in hearing. It does make the story a little disjointed, but it also allows us to sweep through some of the more mundane details and focus on what Thomas Malory (and the author) thinks is important to the reader. Perhaps very much as the Arthurian Legend, it focuses on brave daring-do (or not) and not so much on matters of the heart or Malory's less honourable actions.

It is somewhat of a rambling tale - indicative of a man fearing for his life and determined to ensure someone knows his story before his death. It is also thoroughly enjoyable - fans of the period will delight in seeing the glories of Agincourt and the hot mess of politics and bickering kingship played out in a very different way - through the eyes, not of a common man, but through the eyes of one for whom everything is still very much out of his control. Thomas Malory must do as he's bid to make his way in the world.

As this was an eArc, there were no historical notes, and the formatting was not the prettiest. The biggest miss was the lack of details about the historical individuals, which it appears the author wished to share with the reader.

The ending of this tale is very abrupt - too abrupt - no doubt because I as the reader was hoping for some redemption for our main character.

In a genre where the legends of Arthur have always been so alluring for authors and readers alike, I admire this fresh attempt to tackle where much of our knowledge of the legend comes from. The book might have its faults, but in revealing even our scribe's biases, it sheds a whole new light on the tales.

A fabulous take on the fifteenth century and the man behind the Le Morte D'Arthur (even if so much of it is fictional as we know so little about him).

Very interesting concept and I enjoyed the way our main character's story was delivered. The included reaction of our one-membered audience, and the subtle commentary from our story-teller also brought a bit more life to the book. Unfortunately, the story itself just didn't interest me much.

As a big fan of the author, I was excited to get my hands on an early copy of A Good Deliverance, but I’m afraid that it just wasn’t for me. I found the writing style confusing & the protagonist was unsympathetic. The end felt very rushed with no explanation of why things had happened. I’ll confess to being at a bit of a loss. Historical fiction is my ‘go to’ genre & I'm so disappointed to not be able to review this book positively.

Sir Thomas Malory is locked up in London's Newgate prison for the second time, and he doesn't know why. To pass the time, he tells his life story to a boy walking around the prison. About how, as a child, he wanted to be a soldier and joins the retinue of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. In addition, he has a fascination with the stories of King Arthur and begins to write them down.

I already read Toby Clemens' four-volume work about two ordinary people during the Wars of the Roses (his Kingmaker series), and after a long absence, he has published a new work. A good deliverance tells the story of the unknown Thomas Malory who wrote the book 'Morte d'Arthur'. There are some theories about who he was, but we know little for sure.

Except that he was locked up in prison and probably committed some misdeeds. Clemens now gives him a voice and tells the story of a man who wanted to be a knight and goes through a lot during the Hundred Years' War and the beginning of the Wars of the Roses.

The writing style is nice because he tries to make his story easy to understand for the boy and I really loved the first half of the book. But because the second half started to drag a bit, I still keep it at four stars. I also found the ending a bit weird. And I expected more of a real reason for his incarceration.

But Thomas' experiences were entertaining to follow. And Clemens provides yet another glimpse into the life of an unknown man during a complex period in history. For me this is a much more mature book than his Kingmaker series was, so I'm hoping he'll write some more Wars of the Roses themed novels.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Firstly thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the advance copy of the book in return for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book at 30% as I was just not engaged with the story at all . The chapters were too long and I felt that because of that I was losing concentration. Also the characters name that were in bold were obviously real characters but there was no explanation of that .

It’s a shame as I love historical fiction but this one was just not for me

Warwick, 1468. Sir Thomas Malory has been arrested and taken to Newgate Prison, but he has no clue why. Fearing the worst, he wonders if this will be his last day on earth.
So when the door to his cell opens he is relieved to see a boy of about twelve summers and a potential audience to listen to his life story. He is desperate to tell the story of his life, from his past glories on and off the battlefield, to writing the first book of fiction about the great King Arthur.
With his future uncertain will Sir Thomas finish his tale before he finds out his fate?
A truly wonderful story, written with great detail and aplomb.
Toby Clements is one of those authors who transports his readers into the past better than most, the story is delightful and characters are intriguing and the atmosphere is perfect.
This kind of story really is what makes me love historical fiction. Simply sublime.

I did not really enjoy this book. There were a few things I enjoyed, mainly the overall plot of the book and the, albeit limited, glossary at the back of the book, but overall I did not enjoy it. The first thing I heavily disliked was that there were a lot of names written in bold throughout the book, but there was no actual explanation of who they were. The glossary could have been expanded much more as there were quite a few terms that were not in the glossary that could have been included, and a ‘who’s who’ kind of thing would have been of great use. Also I personally did not like the way Thomas was presented, and he is not a likeable character. I am not sure if he was supposed to have been written in this way, but I just did not like it. When he tells the boy his life story (which I just felt this whole thing was not needed), he seems to speak too much.