Casemate 77

Castles, Fortresses and Citadels:

by Henri Stierlin. HB, 30 sheets. 119 illustrations, 99 in colour, fold-out location map and picture index. ISBN 0.500.54308.9. £19.95 (£13.16 from Amazon). Published by Thames & Hudson, 2006. Translated from the French, originally published by Gallimard Loisirs, Paris 2006. Landscape.

This too is an unashamed coffee table book, relying on superb illustrations. There are 29 sites, and for each there is a fold-out near A3 page on stiff paper. The book opens on to the usual 2 pages; the left has a quarter page of text above a vignette, and a half page picture from the ground; the right is a full page aerial photo. These pages then fold upwards to form a single aerial photo, 51x37cm; a coffee table is about the only place you can safely open this book, but it is well worth the effort, and the cost. Some of the A3 photos I would consider slightly over enlarged, but most are sharp enough; Salses is particularly fine. The size of the pictures allows you to grasp the sheer scale of some of the less compact sites, such as the Great Wall of China, and the bunkers on the beaches at Cap-Ferret, in a way usually only available from projected pictures.

The Chimu (1100-1465) fortress of Paramonga in Peru, looking like a sand castle but made from adobe, with very modern looking 'bastions'. (George Gerster/Rapho, Paris).

Arranged chronologically, the sites range from Dún Aengus in Ireland, Masada, Krak des Chevaliers, Carcassonne, Dubrovnik, Sacsawaman, Valletta, Peter and Paul Fortress, Bam and Gorée to Cap-Ferret. Even if you have a particular penchant for one fortification period, this book will give you a superb selection of mightily impressive pictures of a huge variety of fortifications from different times and in different parts of the world. Every fortification enthusiast should have a copy, even if only to show off to others what a fascinating subject we follow.

Charles Blackwood.