About the Author

Hugh Cantlie was born in Shanghai and spent his early childhood in Nanking where his father was an adviser to the Chinese government but the arrival of the Japanese army meant a hurried departure back to England via the Trans Siberian railway.

In 1940 the Chinese family, who had looked after them in Nanking, were able to join them in England but were deemed to be aliens. His parents therefore decided to sell the house and within forty eight hours both families moved to a labourers cottage and steading in mid Wales. Hugh went to boarding school in Wales and then to Marlborough before acceptance to Sandhurst and a commission in the Scots Guards.

After retiring from the army he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor and spent five years in Germany on behalf of a UK property company developing a major office block in Frankfurt and a shopping centre in Munich. On his return to the U.K. he became involved with conservation projects such as the rescue of the old Billingsgate Fish Market and Belford Hall in Northumberland.

Before and after his retirement as a surveyor he was the author of "Ancestral Castles of Scotland" and then, as his own personal crusade against poor standards on the motor-ways, this guide book. He also lectures worldwide mostly on architecturally related subjects and for relaxation he does pen and wash drawings of houses but preferably on commission!