I Believe In Yesterday

Oct 10, 2024 5:26 PM

Author:Tim Moore

In 1989, Tim Moore moved into the last house in Chiswick with an outside toilet. Intrigued by a subsequent encounter with an elderly former resident, he finds himself inspired to travel back to the land before now, experiencing the hardships and pleasures enjoyed and endured by Moores gone by.

The journey that follows takes him through the world of historical re-enactment: living on bramble leaves, Johnny cake and porridge, Moore travels from the Iron Age to the Steam Age, from Roman legionary to Tudor master to Yankee spy, sharing straw beds and daft hats with period obsessives driven by socio-historical curiosity, disillusionment with the modern world, or a simple nostalgia for campfires, flatulence and brutality.

I Believe in Yesterday is an odyssey through 2,000 years of filth and fury, to a time where men were men, the nights were black, the world was your outside toilet and everything tasted faintly of leeks.

Reviews

The world's funniest travel writer

—— Observer

Moore has never been afraid to suffer for his art. In pursuit of comic travelogue gold, he's followed in the footsteps of a nineteenth-century explorer; driven, silver-suited, across Europe in a temperamental Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow; cycled the 3,500km-plus route of the Tour de France; and made a pilgrimage to Santiago accompanied only by a donkey. But none of this compares to what he endured for this superbly funny new book

—— Time Out

One of our most amiable writers

—— The Times

His funniest book... Possibly the best book ever completed by a man covered in congealed animal fat, sweat and canon smoke

—— Independent

Moore is a talented and very funny writer

—— Daily Telegraph

The main lesson of this entertaining trawl through history-as-dressing-up is that living the way we used to is not much better

—— Times Literary Supplement

Hugely enjoyable... Whether he's firing cannons, battling Gauls or forgetting how to get into his codpiece, moore is always entertaining, and this book is laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely educational

—— The Gloss

A witty, inventive and engaging book

—— Waterstones Books Quarterly

The tone is light and Moore a delightful writer

—— London Lite

A live and amusing... interesting and entertaining read

—— TNT Magazine

For any biographer this would be a dream of a life, but Snyder is exceptional in bringing not only a vast expertise to the subject, but also an elegant style and gift for narrative.

—— Christopher Hart , The Sunday Times

An engaging portrait of a little-known and puzzling character

—— Ian Pinder , Guardian

The talented historian Timothy Snyder recounts an intriguing life-history against the turbulent backdrop of east-central Europe in the first half of the 20th century

—— History Magazine

Timothy Snyder is not only one of the leading authorities on Central European history writing today, he is also an elegant stylist, with a talent for storytelling - a wonderful combination

—— Anne Applebaum

It reads like Sovietology rendered by John le Carré

—— Timothy Snyder

The book is well written with flashes of mordant humour and sufficient records of personal foibles and institutional stupidity to keep the reader going through some dreadful moments of human history

—— Political Studies Review

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