Nick Booker chose….

a watercolour

1968 was for many reasons a memorable year for me. Apart from being my first year working away from home, it was the Swinging  60s and I managed to experience some of it including, seeing the musical Hair as well as making some life long friends. I now live in Kenilworth and see the castle most days when I walk the dog. It now looks rather different from Copley's picture. English Heritage and its predecessors have done a splendid job in conserving the castle but the romantic ruin image is nevertheless more fun - just like the 60s!

Nick Booker is Deputy Chair of the Herbert's Board of Trustees

What the curator says:

Kenilworth Castle with Cattle, collected in 1968
Before 1855
By Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding

Pictures of rural life, landscapes and ruins were very popular in the Victorian period. Kenilworth Castle is a local landmark and has a long and famous history. It dates from the 1100s and major improvements were carried out by King John in the 1200s and John of Gaunt in the 1300s. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, took possession of the castle in 1563. He spent a fortune on converting it for the visit of Queen Elizabeth I in 1575. The castle was also the setting for Sir Walter Scott's romantic novel Kenilworth.