The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
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The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors is a handbook about Late Medieval England by British historian Ian Mortimer. It was first published on the 2nd of October 2008 by The Bodley Head[1], but later edition with more pages was released on the 29th of February 2012. The volume debunks and explains various myths about the period.[2]
The informal book is contained to 1300s in England, with passing references to the Continent. Mortimer goes into details about food, clothing, building materials, the layout of houses, but also covers things like laws, customs, travel, entertainment.[3]
 | |
| Author | Ian Mortimer |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Time Traveler's Guide |
| Subject | England |
| Genre | History |
| Publisher | The Bodley Head |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
Published in English | October 2, 2008 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 319 |
| ISBN | 0224079948 |
| Followed by | The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England[4] |
Illustrations
All the illustrations in the volume were provided by British Library.[5]
Reception
The first newspaper review was written by Tom Holland for The Daily Telegraph. The review was fairly critical of the book; describing the volume as an "old-fashioned study". Holland also proposed that Mortimer felt embarrassed to write a book about that was "familiar to a reader in the 19th century".[6]
Mortimer addressed Holland's criticism by implying that Holland had failed to understand the book, going as far as to call Holland's review "bizarre". In his reply, Mortimer assumed that Holland wanted the book to be "semi-fictionalised" and explained that such an approach would trivialize his work, as the volume is intended to be used by scholars, but also hoped to stand the "test of time".[7]
A review written by Kathryn Hughes and published by The Guardian praised the book's different approach and abundance of trivia, but echoed Holland's opinion about the stylistic choice of narration, stating it to be "awkward".[8]
Later The Washington Post's short review by Aaron Leitko vaunted the book as "Fodor's-style framework" and a travel book that gets into "heart of a different time zone".[9]
The sequels
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Sixteenth Century was published in 2012 by Viking Press[10] and The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: Life in the Age of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and The Great Fire of London by The Bodley Head in 2017.[11]
Popular culture
Various big YouTube historians—such as Raffaello Urbani (Metatron)[12] and Skallagrim Nilsson—have produced videos about the book and endorsed it.[13]
References
- ^ "The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England". www.goodreads.com.
- ^ Mortimer, Ian (29 February 2012). "The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century". Google Books. Random House.
- ^ "Review: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England". Magic Writer.
- ^ The time traveller's guide to Elizabethan England. Vintage. ISBN 0-09-954207-2.
- ^ Mortimer, Ian. The time traveller's guide to medieval England : a handbook for visitors to the fourteenth century. Bodley Head. p. 318. ISBN 1448103789.
- ^ Holland, Tom (10 October 2008). "Review: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer". The Telegraph.
- ^ "Ian Mortimer: What was new in 2008?". www.ianmortimer.com.
- ^ Hughes, Kathryn (24 October 2008). "Review: The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer". the Guardian.
- ^ Leitko, Aaron (14 February 2010). "Book review: 'The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England' by Ian Mortimer". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
- ^ Mortimer, Ian (1 March 2012). "The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England". Google Books. Random House.
- ^ Mortimer, Ian (6 April 2017). "The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: Life in the Age of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and The Great Fire of London". Google Books. Random House.
- ^ "Medieval Towns, Houses, Population And Life Expectancy". YouTube. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
- ^ "Being a Time Traveler in the Middle Ages - Probably Sucks!". YouTube. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
External links
The book's Amazon page
Mortimer's website
Interview with Ian Mortimer by Jem Collins
Category:2008 books Category:14th century in England Category:21st-century history books