Having read The Prester Quest almost at a single sitting, I think I can say without fear of contradiction or a libel suit that Nicholas Jubber is full of it. But his is a most passionate, exuberant and charming kind of ‘it’, and his account of travels in Italy, the Levant, Sudan and Ethiopia in search of — well, in search of something — is a delight.
Nominally he is trying to nail down the myths that surround Prester John, the ‘Priest-King of the Indies’ and master of an earthly paradise located somewhere between Turkey and China. We do not know precisely where, but Ethiopia seems like a good bet. My television company once produced a documentary film based on the same dubious premise about King Solomon’s mines. Jubber and his companion, the robust and indefatigable ‘Mike’, set off on a long and winding road through the Levant. They are accompanied by the spirit and memory of the 12th-century physician, Master Philip. Master Philip was an emissary sent in 1177 by Pope Alexander III to find Prester John, a man whose legend had by that time grown to considerable proportions. Philip was supposed to find the man, give him fraternal greetings, and remind him just who was who in the political and religious pecking order of the Middle Ages. For all this ‘canonical machismo’, Master Philip never returns.
Jubber does, and we have this book to show for it. It is an engrossing and highly enjoyable read and Jubber continually surprises us with his ability to overcome the technical challenges of writing about two journeys separated by a gap of 800 years or so. On finally reaching Ethiopia, for example, he and Mike are accused of looking like God.
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