The Taverner Novels Paperback - 1992

From the jacket flap

These two novels together form an important work of modernist writing. Armed with Madness introduces a group of youthful but disillusioned characters who live a bohemian existence on a strange quest when an ancient chalice is found at the bottom of a well. Then five years later in Death of Felicity Taverner they are caught up in a mystery that hinges on the destruction of the Dorset wilderness.

�����Armed with Madness, very much a Jazz Age novel, introduces us to Scylla Taverner, her lover Picus, her brother Felix, and their closely knit circle of English, Russian and American friends, all in the vigor of youth and overflowing with passionate intensity. Their discovery of an ancient chalice at the bottom of a rustic well ignites a fury of conflicting emotion, and propels them on an adventure of mythic proportion -- a virtual re-enactment of the Grail Quest. Death of Felicity Taverner catches up with them five years later in a mystery that hinges on the destruction of the Dorset wilderness. Mourning their friend and cousin Felicity, they wonder whether her death was accidental? Murder? A suicide? Meanwhile, Felicity's opportunistic widower unveils his plans to savage their beloved Cornwall wilderness with a scheme for a vacation-home development, and threatens blackmail. Grief turns toward vengeance, and a struggle to preserve their lands turns ultimately, inevitably, to a violent climax.