Life in a Castle

These books in The Medieval World series (there are 20), published by Crabtree Publishing Company, serve myriad purposes. For the intended reading age, 9-12, they present medieval life--very confusing to our contemporary conventions--in a perfectly understandable fashion. For that age range, I could not recommend these books higher. If I'd had such materials when I was younger, I might have ended up as a medieval scholar. Yet they also serve a purpose that the publisher may not have intended, and that is for the casual researcher of medieval life. There are accessible texts for the casual researcher, this is true, but none that I've seen contain simple explanations and diagrams. For example, this book is full of wonderful illustrations that depict: the different types of castles, such as the Motte and Bailey and Stone Keeps (terrific illustration of the Motte and Bailey); a two-page diagram about defending a castle that also illustrates the type of buildings to be found within a castle wall; crusader tapestries; real pictures of sadly crumbling castles; and many, many more. Every page in this book (there are 32 pages in every book in the series), is presented in full color, the pages colored to resemble parchment, and the illustrations done to wonderfully evoke the period. The "chapters" included are: The Age of Castles Motte and Bailey Castles of Stone Defending a Castle Crusader Castles Castle Community The Keep The Great Hall Feeding the Castle The Solar In the Bailey Beyond the Walls The End of Castles Forts of the World Glossary and Index (wonderful to have!) If you're a writer, and you're looking for simple information on what medieval life looked like, this series of books can't be beat. To buy the entire series may be prohibitive, but if you have an idea of exactly what you want, this is a great starting point. My only complaint would have to be that I wish these books were bound together in a single volume. Some of the material overlaps from book to book, and as the books themselves are only 32 pages long, a single volume would run well under 200 pages, I would imagine.