You can't go far in Ireland without bumping into a flippin' castle. They're everywhere! There were thousands of castles of all shapes and sizes in Ireland. Because most of them are now in ruins, you'd be forgiven for thinking they're really ancient but they only started springing up in the late 12th century. That's just a dozen of your granda's lifetimes ago (or two dozen of your dad's lifetimes. Or seventy of yours. Or three hundred and forty of your pet hamster's.)
The latest book in the 'Deadly Irish History' series, The Normans is jam-packed with all kinds of interesting facts and stories about castle life. Highly illustrated with cartoons and comic strips, as well as illustrating how castles were built and what medieval fashions were like, it's also full of things to make and do, quizzes and puzzles.
The third in John Farrelly's series follows The Vikings and The Celts to talk about the next bunch of invaders: Normans. As always the book jumps right in with a mixture of facts, cartoons and jokes. There are plenty of activities and quizzes - I'll be making a Norman castle with my nieces next time it rains!
There's no soap opera episode this time around, which was always one of my favourite bits, but there is a comic strip about Seamus the Sinister Swordsman (which includes a bit of Where's Wally by having us look for certain things in the illustrations!) I also really enjoyed the list of castles around the country, sorted by how haunted they are - I know which ones to avoid now!
I can't wait to see what John is going to cover next. I'm sure it'll be just as fun as these ones.
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