‘A foul-mouthed drunkard, a prudish nun, a jester, a glutton and a monk of dubious learning – these are just some of the crew aboard the SHIP OF FOOLS, a vessel that’s going nowhere fast. Only dimly aware of their predicament, they must tell tales to ward off disaster. As their stories weave around each other they create a sparkling tapestry of ingenuity and imagination. A gargantuan nymphomaniac sets out on an odyssey to find her mother. A prince appoints a servant to be his whipping-boy. A wandering minstrel stops at nothing to protect a garden from starving orphans, and a novice enters a labyrinthine world of murder and intrigue… Bawdy, generously peopled and endlessly inventive, THE SHIP OF FOOLS is a ‘Canterbury Tales’ for the new millennium. It is a rich treasure chest of a novel, marking the debut of a formidable writing talent.’ That’s what it says on the cover… Here are some responses from reviewers. "A remarkable achievement." Hal Jensen, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT "A glorious, ribald chunk of wit and erudition, sparkling with creativity and bursting with rude life... His language, too, is some of the most keenly pleasurable that I have read: it foams from the page as delightfully as cold beer on a summer's day." Chris Power, THE TIMES "Pure entertainment. Finishing it, one has the contented sensation of having completed a beautifully painted and crafted jigsaw of a thousand pieces." Alice Thompson, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY "They are dark fables, placed more-or-less in the Low Countries, in a plague-ridden, superstition-fuelled late Middle Ages, filtered through the worldly assuredness of a 21st century mind. Though they are often funny, and some are deliciously rude, at the heart of many of them is empty sacrifice or aching lack of fulfilment: the servant who suffers for his selfish prince, the accursed girl yielding to an unwelcome lover... 'The Penitent Drunkard's Tale' [tells] of a novice inventor who finds intrigue and murder among his brethren. This gives the book the closest thing it has to a hero, and allows Norminton to flex his considerable storytelling powers in a tale of dazzling twists and turns echoing Borges and Umberto Eco." Susan Mansfield, THE SCOTSMAN THE SHIP OF FOOLS SCEPTRE HARDBACK 0340821000 MARCH 2002 OUT IN PAPERBACK ON 7 NOVEMBER 2002 - PRICED £6.99 You can order the book now from amazon.com & Blackwell's Online Bookshop.