This is the eighth book of The Squire's Tales series. I've been rereading them just for the enjoyment of great writing and fun stories and this book is no different. Beaufils has lived an extremely sheltered life: the only human he has ever known in his isolated home is his mother. Following her death, he wants to search for his father, having learned from his mother that his father was a knight at Camelot. Because Beaufils is very much an innocent, his interactions with the first humans he meets are amusing but also enlightening to the reader: it turns out that Beaufils himself is a very good-looking fellow, but he isn't aware of this and he really doesn't grasp the concept of physical beauty or ugliness in others. He also experiences right away examples of good and evil in the human race.
Beaufils joins up with the Lady Ellyn, Galahad, Gawain, and others as he embarks on a quest to find the Holy Grail, which interests him much less than finding his father and helping his companions with their quests.
There's so much to love in these stories. It's true of all his books, but it struck me again in this book how many interesting female characters Morris adds to or embellishes using the stories of King Arthur and other popular stories of the Middle Ages. Lady Ellyn in this story is one of my favorite of Morris' female characters: she's funny, introspective, courageous, and kind. These books are great for middle readers interested in fantasy, knights, adventures, magic, and good story telling. I'll be sad when this series ends for me, but it's been fun to reread these books and I'll probably pick up the whole series sometime again soon and start over!
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