A Medieval Life: William de Felton and Edlingham Castle, 1260-1327

REVIEW BY ANDY KING This is a book arising from the author’s excavation of the small castle at Edlingham in Northumberland, and it concerns the life and career of Sir William de Felton, the man who – probably – built the hall house that the ‘castle’ developed from. Its avowed aim is to determine the extent to which it is possible to reconstruct the life of a such a man, and to put the construction of the house into its historical context. It is not ‘a full-blown work of academic history’ (p.xvii), and it is only scantily referenced, though there is a full bibliography and a guide to further reading. Fairclough does, however, take pains to describe his methods, and to emphasi