I got this book through www.readitswapit.co.uk one of the great things about that site is that you never know quite which edition you are going to get. My edition of this book was printed and sold in Pakistan and contains the some bizarre errors in both spelling and layout. This is an odd book, sixties far-left revolutionary, Tariq Ali, writes a novel (actually this is the first book of a quartet) to set the record straight about the secular and liberal world of Muslim Spain and the brutality of the Spanish reconquest. In doing this, he makes heroes of feudal Muslim landowners, aristocrats who live off the labour of serfs and peasants; peasants who touch their forelocks and love their betters, even when jus primae noctis is being practiced willy-nilly. A less likely bunch of heroes, for an old Trot like Ali, it would be hard to find.

It is pretty terrible, cliched plot, characters with modern sensibilities in late medieval Spain, awkward and unconvincing direct speech. A plot from Barbara Cartland, with dialogue from Acorn Antiques - avoid. ( )