One day in 1973, my father, a former coal miner from Ebbw Vale, decided to buy a castle. This was not a pumped-up neo-Georgian pile built by some Edwardian industrialist. No, this was Dynevor Castle (also known as Newton House), Llandeilo, completed in 1660 in rolling Welsh countryside, shaped into a deer park by Capability Brown.
It was beautiful, with over 40 rooms, including