Castle is the fifth in David MacAulay’s series of children’s books about architecture and building (following Cathedral, City, Pyramid and Underground, all worth your time), first published in 1977. (You might also know MacAulay’s Hotel of Mysteries and The Way Things Work).

Castles are obviously a huge part of the appeal of fantasy roleplaying. Tabletop RPGs came out of the wargaming scene, after all, and castles are a technology of war. MacAulay’s book chronicles the building of a fictional, but fairly typical, medieval castle in the Welsh style, detailing not only the physical parts of the castle, but the craftsmen and tools required for their construction. He also tackles the town that grows up next to the castle and the symbiotic relationship that develops between the two.

Accompanying the text are MacAulay’s exhaustively detailed ink drawings. They convey a sense of space and usage that I think is particularly noteworthy for game masters designing dungeons and ruined castles for their players. I think about this book a lot.

There was also a PBS documentary that animated sections of the book in the early 80s that I recall being quite good.

Anyway, castles are cool. MacAulay’s Castle is no exception.