Growing Up in a Castle Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be!

A Charmed Life – Growing up in Macbeth’s Castle (By Liza Campbell)

My husband and I have spent vacations at our cottage in the hills in Wales. This humble abode in a pastoral setting is surrounded by land that is part of the ‘mysterious’ Cawdor Estate – owned by a British family whose heritage spans 700 years.

Naturally, I was thrilled to read this memoir about the estate as well as Liza Campbell’s Welsh and Scottish upbringing. Americans seem to be enchanted with castles and aristocracy thus providing another reason to delve into this provocative read.

Liza Campbell Cawdor’s story is witty, compelling and intelligent; I admit
consulting our dictionary with regularity while reading this. With a razor
sharp memory, she recalls her birth in Scotland, the last daughter born in
Cawdor Castle, to an idyllic childhood in her beloved Welsh valley. Returning
to Cawdor, we follow daily life in the castle, her fairytale existence
unraveling into a nightmare as her father, who inherits the title and lands, succumbs to excess drink, drugs, affairs, ultimately destroying the family’s legacy.

One of the most enthralling memoirs I have read – it gives us a glimpse into
life at the very end of an aristocratic era, when gentlemen still frequented
their London Clubs (Whites for example), debutantes ‘came out’, sons and
occasionally daughters, attended Oxford or Cambridge and the rich enjoyed their
country house hunting parties at the weekend. Richly told and without self
pity, I do hope you are moved by this powerful story.

It is available to check out at our own .

-Catherine Addé, Sierra Madre Library Board of Trustees