Geoffrey of Monmouth The History of the Kings of Britain.(1136?) The original and the best. It may be nearly 900 hundred years old, but a lot of it, especially the final third devoted to Arthur, reads like a novel. Here is the origin of so much in the myth that it is the unavoidable starting place. (In print and available in Penguin).

Chrétien de Troyes Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart (1 180s?). A commissioned story this which, it has been suggested, Chrétien found distasteful because of the adultery between Lancelot and Guinevere. Forit is here the triangle first appears. Written for a sophisticated court audience the adultery occasions no guilt or consequence for the unfeeling pair. An amoral tale. (Again available in Penguin).

The Mabinogion is a selection of tales from a number of fourteenth century Welsh manuscripts. Arthur appears in the majority. Sometimes crystal Clear sometimes difficult to follow, the tales are magical and unsettling and give a fragmented insight into the heart of early mediaeval Wales ‑ a real contrast to Chrétien's creation. (Penguin again)

Thomas Malory Le Morte D'Arthur (1470?). Malory's achievement in pulling every tale and rumour of a tale about Arthur from three centuries of story telling is a grand one, but the 1000 pages of The Morte does not carry a consistent narrative thread. This is for dipping into. Get a copy with a good index. (There are now several versions in print).

Alfred Tennyson The Idylls of the King. Not to everyone's taste, a lot of it frankly is depressing. Try The Coming of Arthur or the poignant sections at the end dealing with Guinevere's betrayal, Lancelot's decline and Arthur's demise. (Penguin)

T. H. White  The Sword in the Stone. Avoid the other books in White's tetralogy The Once and Future King. They are dull and often preachy. But TSITS is fresh. The animal stories are White's forte and his Merlin is a touch of genius. This 1938 book relaunched Arthur as a young character and freed our hero from the silt of the Victorians.

Geoffrey Ashe Anything Arthurian by Ashe is stimulating but read The Discovery of Arthur (Guild, 1985). Here Ashe proposes that Riothamus, an obscure mid fifth century war leader, was the historical Arthur. This is the first of the 'I've found the real Arthur' books of the late twentieth  century.

N. J. Higham Myth Making and History (Routledge, 2002). The full sceptical treatment here from a first rate scholar. This will disappoint anyone looking for the 'real' Arthur, but it is fascinating.