King Arthur vs Devil Kitty
King Arthur vs Devil Kitty is a Medieval Monster Tale Reborn. This beautiful illustrated book is inspired by kids’ picture stories of the 1970s, Monty Python, Jabberwocky, Gawain & the Green Knight, and The Goodies vs Kitten Kong.
Writer Daniel Sumption and illustrator Maximillian Hartley have taken an original 13th Century French story – the tale of the Chapalu or Cath Palug – in which the legendary King Arthur and his wizard Merlin travel across Europe to take on a giant kitten, and they have updated it for modern readers – children, adults and immortals alike.
Alongside the story of Arthur and the Cat, medieval scholar Dr. Laura Chuhan Campbell, from the University of Durham, explains the historical background to the tale its 13th Century French origins, and its previous translation into English, in the 15th Century, as part of what is now known as The Prose Merlin.
And for players of Dungeons & Dragons™, there are stats for bringing the Devil Kitten into your roleplaying games.
This is a 56-page book, available as both a hardback and a paperback, both of which are 210mm x 210mm, printed in vivid full-colour throughout.
Daniel Sumption
Daniel Sumption is a writer, artist, and explorer of strange landscapes, both real and imagined. His work meanders through folklore, psychogeography, poetry, and roleplaying games, always seeking the peculiar edges of storytelling.
His bibliography is as eclectic as his interests. In King Arthur vs Devil Kitty (illustrated by Maximillian Hartley), he resurrects a medieval French tale in the style of a 1970s picture book, complete with Monty Python-esque absurdity. Mostly Harmless Meetings offers 100 folkloric encounters for roleplaying games, where gossiping fleas and aristocratic frogs replace the usual combat fodder. Gespenwald is an adventure set in a ghostly forest of undead mycelium, appearing for only one night each year.
Beyond the realm of games, Daniel’s curiosity leads him into artistic and poetic experiments. Learning to Draw Trees is a year-long journey of sketching trees, culminating in a book that blends art, introspection, and even a tree-based roleplaying game. His poetry collection, Accidental Poetry Roadie, maps the intersections of land, loss, and language, while Working Nights is a photographic tribute to the nocturnal party-life of Sheffield and London in the early 2000s.
Daniel’s work celebrates the liminal and the overlooked: the places between night and day, past and present, fiction and folklore. Whether through words, drawings, or game mechanics, he invites readers to step off the path, to listen to the trees, and to embrace the mysteries that lie just beyond the everyday.
