Stephen Friar
Author of Basic Heraldry
Works by Stephen Friar
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 20th Century
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- Heraldic consultant
- Organizations
- Society of Heraldic Arts (founder)
Royal Society of Arts (Fellow)
Liberal Democrats - Short biography
- Stephen Friar is an executive (cabinet) member and former vice-chairman of West Dorset District Council where he is leader of the Liberal Democrat Group. He is a member of the Regional Council of Arts Council England, chairman of the Dorset Design and Heritage Forum, chairman of the Sherborne Sports Trust, chairman of the Dorset Arts Advisory Group, a member of the Council of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Culture Theme Group of the Dorset Strategic Partnership.
An author and freelance journalist, Stephen has a master’s degree in medieval history and was employed in the education service for twenty-five years (thirteen as a head teacher) before he left to concentrate on writing. He has written nine books, mostly on historical subjects, and is now struggling with his second novel. ~collected from http://west-dorset-libdems.org.uk/inf... - Nationality
- UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- UK
Members
Reviews
A useful reference book, more focused on Britain than Ireland, but understandably so. It is annoying that it's major section on Ireland has some grievous errors though (the Great Famine began in 1845 and killed hundreds of thousands, rather than thousands). A failure to appreciate this 'scale of event' will downplay its impact on both irish localities, and British ones (imagine Liverpool without the resultant influx of Irish migrants, for instance). Using the term 'Celtic' constantly when show more writing of Ireland, rather than Gaelic, shows a failure to grasp the type of nuance that local history should thrive on, while simultaneously robbing other 'Celtic' regions of these islands of their distinct local identities.
All else is fine though, with some pleasant detail, and delightful illustration. The willingness to engage with Ireland at all is good, and it shows good knowledge of other areas of Irish history in other sections. Indeed the decent awareness of local distinctions that you would expect in a book like this seems to be there. show less
All else is fine though, with some pleasant detail, and delightful illustration. The willingness to engage with Ireland at all is good, and it shows good knowledge of other areas of Irish history in other sections. Indeed the decent awareness of local distinctions that you would expect in a book like this seems to be there. show less
As an amateur herald, I like this book more than the Fox-Davies dictionary. It is more concise in definitions, with fewer in-depth descriptions or examples of things, but the illustrations are sometimes a lot better.
One of the finest reference books on Heraldry, this resource is a "must have". Wonderfully illustrated and easy to understand.
Among all the books on heraldry I own, this is the one I refer to the most often. I think I own at least two copies, perhaps three.
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Members
- 483
- Popularity
- #51,117
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 28