Whatever your favourite stories and styles may be, this book has everything you could hope for. William Goldman brims on brilliant with this fantastic tale, and “abridged version of S. Morgenstern’s classic tale” (though that’s just one more layer to the tale).

Buttercup is a beautiful girl on a quaint, lovely farm. She loves to ride her horse, Horse, and boss the farmboy around to the habitual, predictable reply of “as you wish”. She learns that those three words mean something much more profound. But before they can act upon it, the farmboy is whisked away and though Buttercup waits for him, years pass, and Prince Humperdink enters the tale and takes her to his castle to make her his bride.

Sure, sure, this might sound like one of those “airy-fairy, lovey-dovey” romance tales, but you would be quite mistaken.

It is a tale of true love, yes, but it is also a tale of revenge, danger, fencing and fighting. It is a tale of bandits and giants and a six-fingered man. It is a tale ripe with daring escapes, inconceivable intrigue, miracles and artful deception, ripe with dueling of good men, bad men and a very big man. It is a tale with dangerous beasts, and deadly swordsmen and one quite cunning Dread Pirate Roberts.

Even if it is a “kissing book” at times, it is a tale about everything. You’ll laugh, you might cry, and above all, you will believe in love and one other hopeful thing: Westley never dies.

You will also come away with an arsenal of one-liner zingers that will make you smile every time they come to mind.