The Guardian has named Brideshead Castle among its list of Top 10 literary castles and country houses. Ā The list was put together by Helen Maslin as part of the Guardian’sĀ ongoing series onĀ Top 10 Children’s Books. Ā Others selected incude Nancy Mitford’s Hampton, home of Lady Montdore in Love in a Cold Climate, and P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings Castle, seat of the 9th Earl of Emsworth (and his pigs). Ā More in keeping with the series’ stated theme, Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter series is also named. Ā Maslin recently published a children’s book entitled Darkmere. Ā Here’s an excerpt from her description of Waugh’s novelĀ asĀ a book for children (or perhaps young adults):
Brideshead Revisited was a battered favourite among boys I knew when I was in my teens. Although it was never the theological theme of the book that interested them ā they, like Charles Ryder, had fallen under the spell of Brideshead Castle and the glamorous Flyte family […] Charles is already entranced with beautiful and charming Sebastian Flyte, when heās taken to Brideshead […] and admits that although ārapt in the visionā he also felt an ominous chill at the words Sebastian used ā not, āthat is my houseā, but āitās where my family liveā.