Castles of England, Scotland and Wales

by Paul Johnson

From Edinburgh to Tintagel, this is a pictorially stunning tour of Britain's many castles. Featuring 130 color photos. Together, England, Scotland, and Wales possess one of the largest and most impressive collections of castles anywhere in the world. Castles have had a key role in Britain's history, and the names of many of them--Kenilworth, Edinburgh, Bodiam, Stirling, Harlech, Tintagel, Berkeley, and Warwick--are synonymous with romance, battle, and intrigue. This handsome pictorial survey traces each stage in their Norman times through Plantagenet and Edwardian expansion, Tudor strengthening of the coastal defenses, the appalling devastation of the Civil War, the castle's gradual decline, on to fantastic mock castles, like Castle Drogo. Among Paul Johnson's many books are A History of the Jews, British Cathedrals, Civilizations and the Holy Land, Intellectuals, and To Hell with Picasso and Other Essays. 216 pp 10 x 7 1/2 130 color photos

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Travel, Scotland

Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Paul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe.

Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979), A History of the English People (1987), Intellectuals (1988), The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815—1830 (1991), Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999), A History of the American People (2000), A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974), Napoleon (2002), George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982).

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Castles of England, Scotland and Wales gives brief, basic descriptions of different architectural traits amongst Castles in these locations and as someone with minimal knowledge of the inner and outer workings of Castle life and purposes of various structures, I found this book very interesting and educational. This book touches on materials used, the building process, castle defense, tower houses, English invasion and the borders.

One thing I found interesting was that stone castles were a rarity until the 13th century - most castles before then being little more than simple towers. And of course, one of the great destroyers of castles was fire and stone was virtually fireproof.

I would recommend, with the warning that this is heavy non-fiction. Don't expect many interest stories woven into the text.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very "vanilla" descriptions of these castles, I would say. We know, for a fact, that castles have torture chambers and I didn't see one single description of any of this. So we're missing a lot here.

After a while, it's moat--or no moat, walls or no walls, pastures or no pastures, windows or no windows. They're still miraculous and have withstood the tyranny of time.