The Prester Quest

Nicholas Jubber and companion Mike set out to “deliver Pope Alexander III's letter to Prester John, the Priest-King of the three Indies”, as was originally dispatched with Master Philip in 1177.

Of Prester John, legends abound, contradict and confuse. It is likely he was not a real person, and his supposed letter to Pope Alexander is almost certainly been created by a European. That the Pope wrote a letter of response and dispatched his physician to deliver it is odd enough, without knowing where it was he was heading.

At over 500 pages long, this book was in serious need of an editor. Not only to cut out the insignificant and reduce page count, but also to keep it on track. To some degree this is a case of fitting a concept around a travel experience the author wanted to make, rather than a specific historical investigation or recreation of a journey.

The book looks to follow the route of Philip, despite him leaving Venice and “not being heard from since” Jubber constructs a number of letters supposedly written by Philip en route and dispatched to ‘good friend' Roger of Solerno. Roger of Solerno was likely a real person (Rogerius Salernitanus, who wrote a prominent book on surgery).

This was a pretty hard book to review, as on the face of it the potential was high. For me it didn't measure up, as it got bogged down hugely in (modern) Israel and Palestine. Not only did the book commence there as the origin of the quest, but during the travel they return there and spend over a hundred pages treading water there. For much of the journey the travel feels superficial, by which I mean there is perhaps a description of what the author sees in a town or city, but it gets distracted into a description of modern culture or people. Too often, Jubber and Mike discuss the inane with uninteresting people, and we are reading about it.

There were sections where it became interesting, where interesting places were visited and interesting people spoken to, but they were really too few and too far between. The journey takes them from Italy and Vatican City to Rhodes, on to Turkey, then Syria. Into Lebanon, then Jordan, where they take the above mentioned diversion in to Israel and Palestine. They then cross into Sinai and to Egypt, following the Nile south through Sudan and finally into Ethiopia.

Despite the complaints above, it was an interesting enough modern travelogue (it took place in 2001, forever stamped by 9/11 which occurred in the final days of their travels, and which seemed to have little effect on Mike, and practically no effect on Jubber). There was plenty of the usual - bad roads, over-filled buses, breakdowns and unreliable vehicles, passport issues and border crossings - none of it in any way unique, but all part of travelogues I guess. Somehow it did stand out as a first time novel - hallmarks like wedging in every thought, relevant or not; and Jubber has gone on to write several other books.

At high risk of repeating myself even more, I will cut this off and award it 3 stars.