ie They are  NOT coming from overseas !!

DUNCTON  QUEST

By the author of DunctonWood

- By William Horwood - 

ISBN: 071261695061

Publisher: Century Hutchinson Ltd, London, UK 

Published: 1988

Binding: HARDcover. with Dustjacket  717 pages  

Condition: Once read & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display copy as illustrated!

Edition: Stated  FIRST EDITION: 2nd printing  1988

TIGHT,  SCARCE   HARDCOVER    with Dustjacket ~  IN  MELBOURNE  ... 

WHY do ebayers buy from US?

Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!

Remains once read - it was then a display copy in a private collection. It is Tight -  neat, no inscriptions or marks within - slight mild general toning/ wear to pages from storage. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!!  A nicely preserved copy - superb!

We have TWO other of William Horwood HARDcovers too - see my last photo!

No discernible shelf wear, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 717 pages. THIS copy is the First UK edition 2nd printing from 1988 - the UK publishing by Century Hutchinson Ltd,, London, UK. 

SCARCE title - this is a once read copy!!

In original green boards HARDcover binding with striking gold titles to the spine, housed in a beautifully illustrated dustjacket, by John Barber, which is in excellent as new condition.  An author portrait inside back flap.

(Stored with 2021!)

Measures approx.  9  x 6  inches or 24  x 15½cms

SYNOPSIS ....

Duncan Chronicles   #2

When Tryfan, son of Bracken and Rebecca, returns to the sacred Burrows of Uffington, he finds dreadful signs of death and destruction. For out of the chilly North have swarmed the grikes, a fanatical tribe of warrior moles bent on destroying all believers in the powers of the Stone.

Tryfan’s duty is clear – to muster and protect the few remaining Stone followers from the evil that seems certain to engulf them. With only a frail and timid mole named Spindle for company, he sets off on an epic journey… But can he save his friends? 

About the Author

William Horwood is an English novelist. His first novel, Duncton Wood, an allegorical tale about a community of moles, was published in 1980. It was followed by two sequels, forming The Duncton Chronicles, and also a second trilogy, The Book of Silence. William Horwood has also written two stand-alone novels intertwining the lives of humans and of eagles, The Stonor Eagles and Callanish, and The Wolves of Time duology. Skallagrigg, his 1987 novel about disability, love, and trust, was made into a BBC film in 1994. In addition, he has written a number of sequels to The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. 

In 2007, he collaborated with historian Helen Rappaport to produce Dark Hearts of Chicago, a historical mystery and thriller set in nineteenth-century Chicago. It was republished in 2008 as City of Dark Hearts with some significant revisions and cuts under the pen name James Conan.

Wonderful - Uplifting read!

Reviews

FIVE STARS! …. I've only read the first two of the Duncton Chronicles, and I've not read other books by this author yet, but I'm thinking surely this is his masterpiece. The writing is superb and the plot is wonderfully engaging. I stayed up quite late last night to finish this one, and will start the third today. What a Quest!! If you love quality fantasy, read this. I think it would be fine as a stand-alone, although the first book was solidly entertaining, too. 

FANTASTIC book!!! …… This is an excellent book .... This absorbing book is the second of a series that I am re-reading after many years and I am enjoying them all over again. There is a lot more depth in the books than just reading them on the surface level as animal stories. I am enjoying them very much.

LOVED this book so much! .... Horwood effortlessly draws his readers into a world so entrenched in lore and magic that it is bittersweet to reach the finale. Truly an unheralded , masterpiece in the literary world.

IT'S A MASTERPIECE!   .... Possibly Horwood's greatest work! The Multi-stranded novel that goes to tremendous heights and terrible depths demonstrates how apparently unrelated matters can somehow be ultimately dependant, one upon the other. Not a quick read, but then it deserves to have time devoted to it. I could suggest passages to look for, but the true power is in the whole, not the parts.

AWESOME  book!!! …… I've read this before and it is as rich as the first time.
The book follows the career of Jim Stonor, an artist driven by the stories his father told him about the last sea eagle in Skye. It is a slow, comfortable read that takes you to the fishing village of Deal, England, London, NY and Scandinavia.

AMAZING. Wonderful story   …. DDuncton Quest, is a far darker book than Duncton Wood . Instead of Bracken and Boswell as Main Characters there is Tryfan (son of Bracken and Rebecca) and Spindle. And in the evil department there is Henbrane Daugther of Mandrake. The book starts were Duncton Wood ends. (It is hard to beleive the books were written almost nine years apart.) Disease, death and hatered are a main part of the book as moles who follow the "Word" take over those who follow the "stone". As a Stone beleiver, Tryfan struggles to keep faith in a world going dark. A number of characters from Duncton Wood appear in Duncton Quest. Listed as a childrens book in a written for adults. The book is FANTASTIC and easy to follow, even through in most chapters, you are following different groups of moles at the same time.

An amazing work!!  …. Horwood has written aNOTHER masterpiece!  The second of the mole books in the Duncton trilogy, we find the hero of the book, Tryfan, making a pilgrimage to the Uffington system with his scribemole mentor. When they get there they find the system overtaken by “grikes”, followers of the Word rather than the Stone. The grikes are systematically taking each system by force, so Tryfan heads back home to prepare Duncton for battle, then off into London (the Wen) to seek the Stone Mole.

The story features moles but they’re written as people, in societies, with relationships and struggles in life. The battle scenes are really well done and we really find ourselves rooting for Tryfan as the story unfolds. It’s no fairy story either. There is bloodshed and death, but also religion and supernatural happenings.

People (twofoots) and cars (roaring owls) are only background detail to this story, so wonderfully told, with great characters, even if they are moles.

Glorious, emotional uplifting  … Just as epic and involved as the first in the series. Yes, the religious stuff allegory is full-on, but it works given the story. To ask a reader to care about moles might be a big ask but it's much easier than you might expect.

Marvellous Reading!

WHY  do ebayers buy from US?

Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item & form part of my description!!

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