Can anyone please give me some titles of good books about castles? -

1) how they were built
2) daily life in castles and their surroundings
3) what sieges were like, inside and outside

Thanks.. I've looked around the booklists on this site, also places like Amazon, and haven't had much luck.

Have you ever read ' Castle' by David Macaulay?

A very good book that even had a cartoon made about it. First saw the cartoon in the 1980's and tracked down the book as an adult.

I am also interested to see what books are suggested.

A lot of history shared in this title but may lack day to day stuff.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rhine.html?id=idcBAAAAYAAJ

The contemporary, such as Froissart and Thomas Walsingham covering the 14th century. Big bucks for the Walshingham texts but probably accessible somewhere for reading.

British History online
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/

A very good read is Mohammed and Charlemagne covering some detail of day to day society and economics
https://www.amazon.com/Mohammed-Charlemagne-Henri-Pirenne/dp/0486420116

I'd be hard pressed to suggest a one book covers all, because I think you'll find more by breaking down the topics a bit, along with timelines. There are several sites that list European castles and quite a few listed have very good historic notes on their own websites. More than a few that date back to Roman Empire times were built over, expanded and updated over many centuries.

Happy hunting

Cheers

GC

Oh yes, one of my first ever bookmarks going back to 1990s
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/sbook.asp

Another winner
http://www.sirclisto.com/

depends what age the info is required for really. Dorling Kindersley and Usborne do good books on the subject, or I have brilliant works by Charles Oman, Plantagenet Somerset Fry and others.

Roger, I'll be interested in what you think about the books when you get them. Sounds like a good recommendation Pieter B.