[Anguirel]

I am completely with Child about The Once and Future King. However, while many people admire The Sword in the Stone most out of the TH White novels, I must admit to find it, with the posthumously published Book of Merlyn, not nearly as thrilling as the others. The Malory influence is less pervasive, the authorial pieces of fancifulness rather too numerous, the childishness avoiding any real sense of danger, the appearance of Robin Wood in retrospect rather annoying. (Though White's take on Kay's character is fascinating.)

The Queen of Air and Darkness, for me, was a real improvement. Battles, vast battles. O Scotland, Scotland. The appearance of the family I most enjoy reading of in White and Malory, the Orkney brothers, Gawaine, Gaheris, Agravaine and Mordred. And in their mother, Morgause, a character of spine-curdling beauty begging to be fleshed out. White described Gawaine as "a swine with a stroke of human decency". I would describe him as "my favourite figure in legend or literature".

In the Ill-Made Knight, we see an almost unique construction-the character of Chretien de Troyes' Lancelot modelled first in Malory's image, then in White's. The result is a Lancelot far more likeable than Malory's or Tennyson's, a truly self-doubting creature. The Candle in the Wind lays the blame for Arthur's downfall too heavily on the orkney's, but it is nonetheless incredibly tragic and moving.

So...yes, I would put White beside the completely dissimilar Tolkien. They also had this in common. Both left trails, irresistable to me, to wider mythologies; White to Malory's vast yet thoroughly readable, sometimes even touchingly personal, Le Morte D'Arthur; Tolkien of course to the Silmarillion. Devouring both of these, I was not alone in comparing the sons of Feanor to those of Lot and Morgause. I felt great sympathy for both families. I desperately wanted to see them redeemed, but knew I couldn't.

Couldn't with Tolkien anyway. But even Malory, great though he is, is just one slant, though indisputably the most comprehensive, on King Arthur. So was born my Gawain novel, working title Hawk of May till I dispiritedly discovered some American lady novelist had pinched it already. Expect it 2038 approx...

In conclusion, the greatest fantasy writer is Malory. Then Edmund Spenser. Then conceivably Tolkien/White...