Powys, along with Phyllis Playter, returned permanently to England in June 1934 and, while staying near the village of Chaldon, Dorset, Powys began Maiden Castle in late August 1934,[6] In October 1934 they moved to Dorchester but then they moved again, to Corwen North Wales, in July 1935, where Maiden Castle was completed in February 1936.

[11] Maiden Castle is about "the difficult relationship of a historical novelist [Dud No-Man] [...] and a young circus acrobat [Wizzie Raveleston].

[14] The characters in Maiden Castle have strange sounding names; When the novel appeared in Britain in 1937 Geoffrey H. Wells, in a review in the Times Literary Supplement, wrote: The total effect is rather that of a celestial – or demonic – Punch and Judy show.

[16] More recently, Morine Krissdottir, in her biography of Powys, describes the plot of Maiden Castle as "absurd" and "the characters over-the-top", while "the dialogue is often unintentionally comic".

[17] Glen Cavaliero also recognises that much of this novel is "implausible", but he suggests that "it takes on a hypnotic reality in the encounters between its leading characters", and he also comments, that though Uryen's "mad quest may have its ludicrous side", he "remains an impressive haunting figure".