Holland also proposed that Mortimer felt embarrassed to write a book about what was "familiar to a reader in the 19th century". He described the volume as an "old-fashioned study". Tom Holland, writing for The Daily Telegraph, was a lone critical voice. deft summary of life in the high medieval period." 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". 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.
Sue Arnold, writing in The Guardian, commented "After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the Middle Ages." The historian Alison Weir stated,"It`s an incredible tour de force, a vivid and page-turning evocation of an age that is long-gone yet has been brought to life again in vibrant and robust fashion thanks to Ian Mortimer`s impeccable scholarship and pacy writing." Professor Steohen Howe, writing in The Independent, remarked that it was "Perhaps the most enjoyable history book I've read all year."Ī review written by Kathryn Hughes for The Guardian praised the book's different approach and abundance of trivia, adding that "It is Monty Python and the Holy Grail with footnotes and, my goodness, it is fun. On first publication it was widely praised. The book has sold more than 250,000 paperback copies in the UK, 100,000 copies in the USA, and is published in several other languages. The book is one of the best-selling social history titles of the twenty-first century, it reached number six on the Sunday Times paperback non-fiction bestseller list at Christmas 2009. Illustrations Īll the illustrations in the volume were provided by British Library. It is ground-breaking in historical literature in that it is written entirely in the present tense. Mortimer goes into details about food, clothing, building materials, the layout of houses, but also covers things like laws, customs, travel, entertainment. The book is confined to the 14th century in England, with passing references to the Continent. The volume debunks and explains various myths about the period. It was first published on 2 October 2008 by The Bodley Head, and a later edition with more pages was released on 29 February 2012. The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century is a handbook about Late Medieval England by British historian Ian Mortimer.
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
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