Martello Towers Worldwide (ePub)
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
File Size: 7.3 MB (.epub)
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781783408788
Published: 4th July 2011
Other formats available - Buy the Hardback and get the eBook for free! | Price |
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Martello Towers Worldwide Hardback Add to Basket | £19.99 |
Martello Towers Worldwide follows the history of the Martello tower from the construction of the early towers built to protect the Mediterranean shores of Spain and Italy right up to the final towers built in the United Kingdom during the First World War.
The book is illustrated with a large number of contemporary and historic photographs, drawings and plans, a very large number of which were not included in the earlier Towers of Strength. These provide the most detailed information yet published about the development of the Martello towers in Britain and overseas. So the book will be of particular interest to those interested in the history of fortifications, architectural conservation and military history generally. It will also be of interest to an international readership as the book now has a gazetteer of towers outside the United Kingdom that remain today together with a chapter describing a number of towers built in the United States.
The book supplements the earlier Towers of Strength and such will be an important addition to the existing bibliography of books on Martello towers and fortification.
I must admit that until I read this compact, and informative book, I had only associated the distinctive outline of a Martello with the British coastline. I stand corrected, and now, well informed about these iconic and potent little outposts. The Martello Tower is of course a very common piece of military architecture across the entire British Isles, including Ireland. This history lists them all and reaches far across the empire to include Canada and what were the American Colonies. This is a handy guide if your tour itinerary happens to take you close to a Martello or two – worth investing.
Guild of Battlefield Guides
Personally I think it's a book that you're looking forward to more, a larger format, with color photographs and larger-scale plans of any of the towers would be a brutal experience.
José Manuél Rico Cortés (Mister JM) - Miniaturas JM
A very interesting and enlightening book for fans of the fortifications that I include myself.
Read the full Spanish review here.
The book's author Bill Clements, is so interested in these 19th century defence towers that he has toured similar existing Matrello Towers in Canada, Mauritius, Minorca, Sicily, South Africa and the Orkneys.
Dover Express
As a result of his interest, he has produced a 240 page well-illustrated hardback book that must be the ultimate on the subject.
About W H Clements
William Clements served in the Royal Ulster Rifles and the Royal Irish Rangers, commanding the 1st Battalion. He was Defence and Military Attache at the British embassies in Beijing and Rangoon.
He has long had a fascination for fortifications and is the author of Towers of Strength, Defending the North; the Fortifications of Ulster 1795-1945, Martello Towers Worldwide (in print with Pen and Sword) and Billy Pitt Had Them Built, Napoleonic Towers in Ireland.
He has contributed articles to the journals of the Fortress Study group, the Military History Society of Ireland and the Society for Army Historical Research. In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.