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English Castles 1200-1300
Christopher Gravett
Osprey publish for a particular military minded audience so one might expect a military view of castle but the bias in the writing of book is so extreme as to make it useless. Written by Christopher Gravett, a former curator of the Royal Armouries (ie not an expert in castle studies) it fails to mention any of the significant advances in castle studies made in the last 30 years and a bibliography which has no mention of Coulson, Creghton or Liddiard, even in a short study of English castles, can not be taken seriously. Not scholarly and Gravett should be ashamed of this. The illustration, by Adam Hook, are of interest in a very limited way but bias and simplification deminish their value (Bedford Castle is shown besieged as though isolated with no hint of the surrounding town of Bedford, indeed no landscape context is shown in any illustration)
In my opinion this book has as much to do with medieval castles as Walt Disney. It pampers to the psychological needs of Osprey's core readers without giving an iota of meaningful knowledge.
Published by Osprey Publishing: Fortress series 86 (2009 Oxford)
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