ST. HELENA: A PHOTOGRAPHIC TREASURY 1856 - 1947 BY ROBIN CASTELL: HARDCOVER, FULLY INTACT DUST JACKET WITH PROTECTIVE PLASTIC COVER, 372 PAGES, FIRST EDITION, 2008, NO INSCRIPTIONS OR NAMES, IN EXCELLENT CONDITION. "Book is full of colour, black and white and sepia plates illustrating the south Atlantic island of St Helena. The 340 illustrations are of old prints, paintings, views, maps and portraits covering the period 1502 (when St Helena was discovered) to 1902. An excellent pictorial overview of the history of this remarkable island, which was settled by the East India Company in the seventeenth century and served as the prison for Napoleon in the early nineteenth century and for Boer prisoners of war in the early twentieth century. In addition the book contains an extract from an 1801 description of St Helena."
Robin Castell was born in 1941 in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England. He was educated at Dover where his academic studies were not taken very seriously, except in the subjects of English, Art and History. His vocation to the work ethic was reasonably dedicated in that survival seemed to be somewhat of a necessity. He is a Freeman and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of the lurners of the City of London, and is an elected member of the Royal Historical Society. He is also President of the St. Helena Island Society. He served as a Magistrate on the Uxbridge Bench for ten years until his departure from England in 1985 to the shores of sunny South Africa, where his endorphins were agreeably stimulated and where his mortal coil took on a whole new meaning, as well as a more acceptable and pleasing way of life. He has published several books about the Island of St. Helena since 1977, and has a beautiful Georgian country house in the Island, where "The Castell Collection" contains the largest permanent public exhibition in the world, of St. Helena prints, maps, engravings, aquarelles and lithographs. He has been collecting early St. Helena photographs since 1974.
