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squid_vicious 's review for:
The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
by Ian Mortimer
4 and a half stars, rounded up.
Only the best non-fiction can be informative and highly entertaining at the same time, and Ian Mortimer walks that line with great skill in “The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England”! I really love his approach, to look at lived history rather than simply at lists of dates, names of kings or important battles. Those things are certainly important, but without a better understanding of the day to day reality in which humans, who were not that different from us, might have lived, they are rather dry and easy to forget. Mortimer wants his readers to get a much more concrete sense of what life was like in 14th century England by discussing
Mortimer is careful to debunk a lot of myths about the Middle Ages, especially with regards to literacy and sexuality, but make no mistake: this was still a rather gross period of time to be alive (by our standards, anyway), even when you were lucky enough to stay clean! I enjoy Medieval historical fiction (Maurice Druon’s “The Accursed Kings” series is an old favorite, and so is “Pillars of the World”), so I find the subject fascinating, and knowing more details about what life was like at the time some of my favorite stories are set certainly helps me appreciate them more and appreciate the struggles of characters I love to read about on a different level.
Mortimer explores many aspects of medieval life that is often not looked at in great detail in fiction, from clothes, to food, to legislation and hobbies. I knew a few things, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn more, especially on the concept of communal justice, which I had not heard about before.
If I have one complain about this book is that I would have wanted it to be even longer and more detailed! Luckily for me, he wrote many more, that I intend to get my hands on quickly!
Only the best non-fiction can be informative and highly entertaining at the same time, and Ian Mortimer walks that line with great skill in “The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England”! I really love his approach, to look at lived history rather than simply at lists of dates, names of kings or important battles. Those things are certainly important, but without a better understanding of the day to day reality in which humans, who were not that different from us, might have lived, they are rather dry and easy to forget. Mortimer wants his readers to get a much more concrete sense of what life was like in 14th century England by discussing
Mortimer is careful to debunk a lot of myths about the Middle Ages, especially with regards to literacy and sexuality, but make no mistake: this was still a rather gross period of time to be alive (by our standards, anyway), even when you were lucky enough to stay clean! I enjoy Medieval historical fiction (Maurice Druon’s “The Accursed Kings” series is an old favorite, and so is “Pillars of the World”), so I find the subject fascinating, and knowing more details about what life was like at the time some of my favorite stories are set certainly helps me appreciate them more and appreciate the struggles of characters I love to read about on a different level.
Mortimer explores many aspects of medieval life that is often not looked at in great detail in fiction, from clothes, to food, to legislation and hobbies. I knew a few things, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn more, especially on the concept of communal justice, which I had not heard about before.
If I have one complain about this book is that I would have wanted it to be even longer and more detailed! Luckily for me, he wrote many more, that I intend to get my hands on quickly!