Battle Castles
500 Years of Knights and Siege Warfare
Published on 27. September 2012
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-00-745558-4 (ISBN)
Description
Join TV's Dan Snow as the fully illustrated 'Battle Castles' brings to thrilling life a cavalcade of medieval fortifications and the clashes that turned empires to dust and mortals into legends.
Castles and their ruins still dominate the landscape and are a constant reminder to us of a time when violence, or the threat of it, was the norm.
Dan Snow explores the world's greatest medieval castles: from Dover Castle to Chateau Gaillard, Richard I's fortress in Normandy, and Castillo de Gibalfaro, the last vanguard of Moorish rule in Spain, to Krak des Chevaliers in Syria - an astounding feat of engineering by the Crusaders.
Each castle's story is dramatically recounted: the building techniques, the weapons used and daily life within the walls. Spanning the globe, and using the latest CGI reconstructions, Dan Snow gets to the very heart of the bloodshed and battles of the greatest fortresses of the Middle Ages.
Castles and their ruins still dominate the landscape and are a constant reminder to us of a time when violence, or the threat of it, was the norm.
Dan Snow explores the world's greatest medieval castles: from Dover Castle to Chateau Gaillard, Richard I's fortress in Normandy, and Castillo de Gibalfaro, the last vanguard of Moorish rule in Spain, to Krak des Chevaliers in Syria - an astounding feat of engineering by the Crusaders.
Each castle's story is dramatically recounted: the building techniques, the weapons used and daily life within the walls. Spanning the globe, and using the latest CGI reconstructions, Dan Snow gets to the very heart of the bloodshed and battles of the greatest fortresses of the Middle Ages.
Reviews / Votes
'An enthralling epic of engineering, blood and battle' Mail on Sunday'History's coolest expert brings to life some of the bloodiest battles ever fought' Sun
'Dan Snow does a fine job of bringing [the sieges] to life' Times
'It has been edited to look like Game of Thrones. Serious historical discovery, however, is what Battle Castle is all about' Guardian
Praise for Death or Victory:
'This hugely impressive work confirms Dan Snow's triumphant arrival on the scene. It is by far the best account yet written of a campaign that helped shape North America, and is a fitting tribute on the 250th anniversary of that "wonderful year" 1759' Richard Holmes
'Dan Snow is perhaps more familiar from television....this, his first book, proves him to be a master military historian. Its grasp of detail is prodigious' Daily Express
'Lively and thoughtful...fascinating stuff....one of the book's strengths is its vivid portrayal of the physical backdrop against which the campaign unfolded' Literary Review
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 252 mm
Width: 195 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
1120 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-745558-4 (9780007455584)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
09/2012
1st Edition
HarperPress
€17.49
Available for download
Person
Dan Snow is an historian who has researched, written and presented several documentaries on British and world history for the BBC including Twentieth Century Battlefields, the BAFTA award-winning Battlefield Britain, which he co-presented with his father Peter Snow, and his BBC2 series on the history of the Royal Navy. His writing has appeared in The Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Daily Express and BBC History Magazine. He is the author of Death or Victory - a history of Wolfe's siege of Quebec. Educated at the University of Oxford, he has joint British and Canadian citizenship. He lives in London.