Runner-up for the book award in the 1994 British Archaeological Awards, Timber Castles is the standard work on the subject and hugely infl uential in its fi eld. Its reissue makes available again this much sought after text with a new preface by Robert Higham.   Some of the greatest medieval castles survive only as earthworks and in pictures and written accounts  . . . because they were made of timber.  Robert Higham and Philip Barker, who excavated in detail the timber castle at Hen Domen in Wales, have brought together evidence of all kinds to produce the first comprehensive survey of this neglected and little-known type of fortification.