Castles of England, Scotland and Wales

by Paul Johnson

Traces each stage of the development of Britain's castles, from Norman times through Plantagenet and Edwardian expansion in Wales, Tudor strengthening of the coastal defences, the devastation of the Civil War, and the gradual decay of the castle, to the creation of mock castles.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Reference, Travel, Scotland

216 pages, 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.