Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales (transl by) Nevill Coghill

Geoffrey Chaucer ( c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey.The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's magnum opus. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. This 1966 edition in the very collectable black Penguin Classics series was translated by Nevill Coghill, Professor of English Literature at Oxford University, who also provides a brief background and introduction.  For every sale made Billowness Books donates 50p to a literacy charity: Book Aid International; Books Abroad; or World Literacy Foundation