A child-friendly tour of Windsor Castle

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Will There Be Knights and Dragons? A children’s book about Windsor Castle

By Marion McAuley and Leah Kharibian, Illustrated by Katy Sleight

With the recent Diamond Jubilee celebrations in mind, visits to royal ‘attractions’ are likely to be popular in Britain during this summer’s school holidays.  Will there be Knights and Dragons? is a question that many parents will hear on the way to Windsor Castle: this is therefore a very timely publication, providing younger visitors with their very own guidebook.  A ten-year-old boy who read it described it approvingly as a ‘story with facts’.

He was more interested in the facts provided about the castle’s history and present use, but thought that the younger children who are the book’s target audience (5–8 years) would thoroughly enjoy the story element.  This is provided as two children are shown around the Castle and its grounds by an armour-clad knight, all the time looking out for his pet dragon, Nina.  The illustrations combine photographs of the Castle, inside and out, with drawings of the children and their companions, which generally work well (though occasionally a ‘speech bubble’ could be better placed).  

The things that are pointed out on the way around are clearly designed to appeal to children’s interests; as well as knights and dragons (in St George’s Chapel, for example) there are ‘murder holes’ and doll’s houses, banquets and sleepovers. (The Queen, we are told, ‘holds special sleepovers at the Castle, which are called “dine and sleep”’.)  They are introduced to the royal collection through a painting of Charles II as a child, and learn that ‘every king and queen for the last 500 years has added to the collection’.  Readers are also introduced to many of the people who live and work at Windsor, including the royal family themselves, guardsmen, choristers, chefs and Military Knights, and information on the role of all of these provides fascinating facts that young visitors will enjoy reading about and sharing. 

Will There Be Knights and Dragons? A children’s book about Windsor Castle  by Marion McAuley and Leah Kharibian, Illustrated by Katy Sleight is published by Royal Collection Publications 2012. 32 pp., fully illustrated in colour, £3.95. ISBN 978 1 905686 72 8