Le Morte D'Arthur

Arthurian legend has experienced something of a renaissance in recent years. Clive Owen and Keira Knightley starred in King Arthur in 2004, the BBC premiered its popular series Merlin in 2008 and there is the upcoming American series of Camelot, starring Joseph Fiennes due to air this year.
But these modern retellings are a world away from their source material. Sir Thomas Malory's 15th century Le Morte Darthur has never been been out of print, Simon Armitage recently translated a new version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Peter Ackroyd has written The Death of King Arthur based on Malory's text. It is these three books that I have been reading since the beginning of the year, with various degrees of enjoyment.