Author:Ian Mortimer
Discover an original, entertaining and illuminating guide to a completely different world: England in the Middle Ages.
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.
'Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time' The Times
'After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages' Guardian
Superbly lively and filled with telling anecdote.
—— Toby Clements , The Big Issue in the NorthAmazing
—— Alison WeirHe 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
—— GuardianThis is not only an unusual book, but a thoroughly engaging one
—— Literary ReviewAfter The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages
—— Sue Arnold , GuardianAddressing 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 TelegraphEntertaining, informative and fun
—— Daily ExpressIan 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 MailSuccessfully communicating the extraordinary energy of this vibrant, cathedral-building time
—— Alistair Mabbott , Sunday HeraldThis superb "rough guide" to 14th century England takes a fresh approach to history by thinking of the past not as something simply to be studied, but as something to be lived
—— Aimee Shalan , GuardianSparkling book...terrific
—— William Leith , ScotsmanTo read this book is to be transported to 14th - century England, in the company of a knowledgeable and witty guide. Dr Mortimer's book is a complete social history of medieval England. All you ever wondered about how people lived - and much more - is here
—— BBC History MagazineIan Mortimer puts the little man back into the 14th Century in this sights, smells, sounds and swords-based romp... Fans of popular history and historical fiction will devour it... It is Mortimer's best work to date
—— Dan Jones , The TelegraphIan Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time
—— The TimesAs lively as it is informative. His (Mortimer's) work of speculative social history is eminently entertaining but this doesn't detract from the seriousness and the thorough research involved
—— Financial TimesThe most enjoyable history book I've read all year
—— Independent, Books of the YearThis is the history book I've been waiting for: the essential handbook for any would-be Time Lords wishing to travel to the Middle Ages. Thorough, detailed and totally absorbing
—— Jason WebsterA unique and astonishing social history book which is revolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining
—— History magazineJudith Herrin's Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe crowns the long career of a deeply learned historian ... a wonderful book, beautifully written and beautifully illustrated.
—— Lucky Beckett , The Tablet, Books of the Yearthe city was "the melting pot of Europe" ... the hinge between the old Roman empire, the refounded Rome of Byzantium and the second new Rome of Charlemagne, who plundered its monuments for his capital at Aachen. Herrin's book ... is a welcome addition to a golden era of scholarship devoted to late antiquity and the early Middle Ages in Europe
—— Martin Ivens , Times Literary SupplementJudith Herrin's Ravenna aims to set the mosaics, the buildings they ennoble and the urban landscape they inhabit back within a meaningful historical context. It's a worthy project that surprisingly has not really been attempted before ... it takes a scholar of Herrin's brilliance to bring events to life within a meaningful evocation of a time and a place. That skill, and a wonderfully pellucid prose style, ensures that even readers frustrated by the archaic narrative will find a great deal to admire and indeed learn from.
—— Michael Kulikowski , Times Literary SupplementAn ambitious, rewarding and detailed history of the city of Ravenna, spanning the period from its designation as imperial capital in the early fifth century to its Carolingian spoliations in the ninth. ... This book is a comprehensive, detailed and glittering history of the city within its Mediterranean context. It will attract the casual reader while also carrying sophisticated new arguments that will appeal to specialists.
—— Giulia Bellato , English Historical ReviewJudith Herrin tells its fascinating history and presents a parade of forceful and creative characters with great insight and a wonderfully light touch, in a book as beautifully produced as it is profoundly researched.
—— R.I. Moore, author of , The War on HeresyUltimately it chimes with a resounding clarion call: we are difficult women. Don’t sand our edges away. Celebrate us in all our uneven glory. After all, well-behaved women don’t make history.
—— Jemma Crew , UK Press SyndicationBlending rigorous research with passages that make you bark with laughter, this is an effortlessly smart study of feminism’s power to make society better for everyone.
—— Gwendolyn Smith , Mail on SundayHelen Lewis has produced a real gem in Difficult Women... With wit and understanding...it is effective and often very moving.
—— Julia Langdon , TabletA collection of fascinating, well-researched and vividly told biographies of women who made tangible contributions to the lives we live now… Lewis’ book is challenging, punchily written and refreshing in equal measure, and a joy to read.
—— Clare Jarmy , Times Educational Supplement ScotlandA lesson modern progressives would be remiss to ignore.
—— Phil Wang , GuardianAny one of these women could fill a book on her own, but Lewis deftly threads their lives together into an irresistibly rumbustious account of this movement; sometimes affecting, sometimes very funny (the footnotes are a sass-filled joy) and sometimes shocking.
—— Sarah Ditum , In the Moment[Difficult Women] is meticulously researched and intelligently argued whilst also being extremely readable. Unusually for a non-fiction book, it is a page-turner. Lewis' style is playful and engaging, and after each chapter you find yourself turning the page asking eagerly "but what happened next?”… Interspersed with personal anecdotes and often funny footnote asides, she deals with the serious alongside the light-hearted in a way which demonstrates her talent as a writer, researcher and journalist
—— Emily Menger-Davies , Glasgow GuardianThis history of feminism eschews feelgood, empowering clichés and goes in search of the 'difficult women' who shaped the fight for gender equality.
—— The Times, *This year's best reads so far*Engaging and witty, this history of feminist fights will keep you gripped to the last page.
—— IndependentThis often hilariously funny book taught me about the women who fought for my freedoms. Unlike in so many accounts, these women are not canonised but written as they are, imperfect.
—— Jess Phillips , WeekHelen Lewis is one of the very few journalists whose every word I will read.
—— Adam Rutherford , Week