For those who love medieval literature – Chaucer or the Brothers Grim – for those who love faerie tales from Ireland – you will love Apples of Immortality. Stories that come from the olden Armenian traditions, handed down from father to son (or more probably grandfather to grandson); tales of giants and the devilish Divs who abduct fair maidens and the wicked kings who steal babies and the fights of the knights or the peasant heroes against injustice. In this rendering, Leon Surmelian – Armenia’s arguably greatest (English speaking) writer brings his characteristic style to the retelling of the lore of his ancient patch of earth nestled between the seas, above Persia and below Colchis along a ridge of mountains that is still rising, the meeting-grounds of worlds. Buy this for your medieval collection; read it to your little boy (as I did, editing out some of the saltier stuff – the world 1000 years ago was a rough place) and use the stories to answer his question, “What’s the lesson from this story daddy?” ‘Three apples fell from a tree: one for the listener, one for the teller of the tale and one for he who heeded its lessons’.