Along the corridors of the castle, the child encounters some of the dark characters who will shape his life. I’ve only recently given up dreaming of living in a castle (I’d actually rather live in a warm, efficient modern house now! With 200 outstanding colour photographs, Castles of the World is a beautiful examination of worlds gone by.

A wonderfully quirky coming-of-age story, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians is an affectionately drawn portrait of one of the funniest families in literature. Sure, there are some novels written for history buffs only, but the vast majority aren’t, and neither is mine. It’s a children’s fantasy grounded in reality, where a young boy is given a model of a castle by his family’s housekeeper. Some of my personal favourites in the book are Caerphilly with its concentric design and double moat, wonderful Beaumaris, Chirk with its original dungeon, Denbigh's breathtaking views, Ewloe for its splendidly steep access, Gwyndir which is lived in and has peacocks strolling the grounds, Ruthin labyrinths, historical majestic Harlech, grand Manorbier, gardens at Picton, Carreg Cennen for its sublime location and passage/cave, powerful Chepstow and pretty Stokesay.This concise illustrated guide is designed to answer exactly those questions, telling the fascinating story of England's castles and their role in history. To that end, I’ve organized this list based on rough reverse popularity, so if you don’t find something new by the beginning, you’ll almost certainly get it by the end. Regency romances need stunning backdrops, so it’s no surprise they have a lot of crossovers with castle books. The first part of A Passion for Castles tells the life stories of David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross and their work as Edinburgh architects before they embarked on their magisterial survey, revealing interesting and previously unknown details about the two men.

The novel was published in 1949 and it has the gentle rural and romantic feel that one can associate with that period — just postwar, looking back to a more idyllic time, and yet realistic about relationships.Learn about castle design, from the earliest motte and bailey styles to stone fortresses and beautiful castles in Japan and India. This volume gives the reader so much good information yet avoids the long dry patches many such books contain. Features historical background and architectural details for each of the castles, accompanied by beautiful colour photographs. Meet the medieval rulers who built the grandest castles and forts, and the modern tycoons who splashed out money trying to replicate them.