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 magazine