Hollywood star Ethan Hawke's third novel is a 'parable for all ages'

The actor and writer addresses the big existential questions in Rules for a Knight, the story of a Cornish knight writing to his children before he rides into battle

Thomas Malory gave us Le Morte d’Arthur in the 15th century; TH White gave us The Once and Future King in the 20th. Now the actor and writer Ethan Hawke is due to provide his own take on chivalry in a forthcoming novel, Rules for a Knight, which his publisher is calling “a parable for all ages [with] the appeal of an Arthurian legend and the economy of Aesop”.

Due for publication in November, Hawke’s third novel will be set in 1483, as “Sir Thomas Lemuel Hawke, a Cornish knight, is about to ride into battle”, said publisher Hutchinson, which has just acquired it for UK publication. Fearing he might die in battle, on the eve of his departure, the knight writes a letter to his children, “consisting of twenty virtues that provide instruction on how to live a noble life; the lessons, large and small, that he would like to impart to them”.

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