The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there...
Imagine you could travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see, and hear, and smell? Where would you stay? What are you going to eat? And how are you going to test to see if you are going down with the plague?
In The Time Traveller's Guide...Ian Mortimer's radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. History is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived, whether that's the life of a peasant or a lord. The result is perhaps the most astonishing history book you are ever likely to read; as revolutionary as it is informative, as entertaining as it is startling.
A historian’s answer to Doctor Who, Ian Mortimer is a polymath whose prolific publishing record includes forays into fiction (where he also writes under the pseudonym of James Forrester) and poetry alongside his primary historical and biographical works. He is best known for his Time Travellers Guides, transporting readers to Medieval, Elizabethan and Restoration England. He is also the author of key historical biographies including The Greatest Traitor, The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation, The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King and 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781845950996
Number of pages: 352
Weight: 270 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 22 mm
Superbly lively and filled with telling anecdote. - The Big Issue in the North
Amazing - Alison Weir
He has a novelist's eye for detail, and his portrait of an England in which sheep are the size of dogs, 30-year-old women are regarded as so much "winter forage", and green vegetables widely held to be poisonous has something of the hallucinatory quality of science-fiction - Daily Telegraph
[Mortimer] sets out to re-enchant the 14th Century, taking us by the hand through a landscape furnished with jousting knights, revolting peasants and beautiful ladies in wimples. It is Monty Python and the Holy Grail with footnotes, and, my goodness it is fun... The result of this careful blend of scholarship and fancy is a jaunty journey through the 14th Century, one that wriggles with the stuff of everyday life - Guardian
This is not only an unusual book, but a thoroughly engaging one - Literary Review
After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages - Guardian
Addressing the reader directly, his aim, triumphantly achieved, is to engage our sympathies with people whose similarities to us are as fascinating as their lives - Sunday Telegraph
Entertaining, informative and fun - Daily Express
Ian Mortimer is taking readers on a sense-smacking tour of the 14th century, which is guaranteed to make us wrinkle our noses in disgust and delight by turns - Daily Mail
Successfully communicating the extraordinary energy of this vibrant, cathedral-building time - Sunday Herald
I have to agree with the quote on the front cover from the independent and this has to be one of the best history books I've ever read!
Mortimer presents a really interesting book and covers practically every...
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I have always been fascinated by the way people lived in the past, but most history courses focus on kings, queens and acts of parliament, and therefore never really hit the spot. History writing has come on a pace,... More
Normally when you think of the 'medieval ages' you think of a time that is filthy, murky and not a lot happens. But, it is a lot more interesting and exciting than people think. This book is fantastic... More
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