AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE IS HIS HOME The mid-seventeenth century should have been the perfect time for aristocrats like Lord Galton, owner of the rural retreat of Henandwya Castle. With the country free from the threat of invasion for the first time in centuries, the Scots and Welsh pacified and the dispute over the one true religion confined to a few crackpots throwing pews around in Glasgow, it should have been time to convert swords into ploughshares and old family castles into stately homes. But then some piffling local dispute in London escalated and the next thing you knew, armies were rushing round the country looking for defensible places to hole up in order to start slogging at each other. Now the peace of the Welsh marches was to be shattered and the plans for a quiet life torn up. When the nation was by the sword divided, even the most pacific of nobles would struggle to remain on the sidelines. Siege Mentality is a historical farce by Andrew Fish, author of Erasmus Hobart and Golden Arrow.