The Blood of Toulouse

'...James Bourne’s English language translation of Maurice Magre’s lost Cathar masterpiece is a literary event of the first degree. This epic gothic fantasy, reminiscent of the very best of Tolkien, Mervyn Peake or Robert E. Howard, is all the more powerful for its basis in meticulously researched historical fact and Magre’s intimate knowledge of the landscape and culture his words so richly evoke. His first person account of the last stand of the Cathars is vast, vivid and noble, his incantatory prose poetic and savage by turns, his vision and message uncompromising in its purity. ’The Blood of Toulouse’ opens a window into a dark, medieval world lit by the holy hellfire of the Inquisition and illuminated by timeless dreams and desires making it essential reading for aficionados of the fantastic as well as all those who would seek to understand this little known but pivotal turning point in European history, the apocalyptic chain of events that lead to the death of the age of chivalry. ..'