From an award-winning historian: "A new and convincing likeness of medieval England's most iconic king" ( The Sunday Times).This biography by the bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England takes an insightful look at the life of Henry V, casting new light on a period in history often held up as legend.A great English hero, Henry V was lionized by Shakespeare and revered by his countrymen for his religious commitmen...

The real life story of the Plantagenet ruler, by "the most remarkable medieval historian of our time" ( The Times, London).The talented, confident, and intelligent son of John of Gaunt, Henry IV started his reign as a popular and charismatic king after he dethroned the tyrannical and wildly unpopular Richard II. But six years into his reign, Henry had survived eight assassination and overthrow attempts.Having broken God's law of primogenit...

A look at the brutal, brilliant fourteenth-century ruler, by the bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England.Holding power for over fifty years starting in 1327, Edward III was one of England's most influential kings—and one who shaped the course of English history. Revered as one of the country's most illustrious leaders for centuries, he was also a usurper and a warmonger who ordered his uncle beheaded. A brutal man, to be sure, b...

The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the author of The Time Traveller's Guide series— " the most remarkable medieval historian of our time" ( The Times, UK).We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterized by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuri...

An award-winning historian's guide to writing about history, in both fiction and nonfiction.Is history absolute? Is writing about the past an exact science, or is it more of a nebulous discipline open to different interpretations and points of view? These are important questions that noted historian Ian Mortimer says all serious writers of history must reflect on.This new collection explores those ideas, providing an analysis on how the immensity of chronic...

‘Beautifully written and superbly executed’ Times'This clever and moving Faustian tale is packed with fascinating historical detail' Express'A joyous romp around England’s dark past' Suzie Feay, GuardianFrom the author of the bestselling The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain, this is a stunningly high-concept historical novel that is both as daring as it is gripping, and perfect ...

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there...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 stud...

The past is a foreign country - this is your guide.We think of Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603) as a golden age. But what was it actually like to live in Elizabethan England? If you could travel to the past and walk the streets of London in the 1590s, where would you stay? What would you eat? What would you wear? Would you really have a sense of it being a glorious age? And if so, how would that glory sit alongside the vagrants, diseases, violence, sexism and ...

'Excellent... Mortimer's erudition is formidable' The TimesA time of exuberance, thrills, frills and unchecked bad behaviour...Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in British history - the Regency, or Georgian England.This is the age of Jane Austen and the Romantic poets; the paintings of John Constable and the gardens of Humphry Repton; Britain's military triumphs at Trafalgar and Waterloo. It was perhaps t...

The past is a foreign country: t****his is your guidebook.Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? Should you go to a castle or a monastic guesthouse? And what are you going to eat? What sort of food are you going to be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord?This is the most astonishing social histo...

One night in August 1323 a captive rebel baron, Sir Roger Mortimer, drugged his guards and escaped from the Tower of London. With the king's men-at-arms in pursuit he fled to the south coast, and sailed to France. There he was joined by Isabella, the Queen of England, who threw herself into his arms. A year later, as lovers, they returned with an invading army: King Edward II's forces crumbled before them, and Mortimer took power. He removed Edward II in the first deposition of a monarch i...

One night in August 1323 a captive rebel baron, Sir Roger Mortimer, drugged his guards and escaped from the Tower of London. With the king's men-at-arms in pursuit he fled to the south coast, and sailed to France. There he was joined by Isabella, the Queen of England, who threw herself into his arms. A year later, as lovers, they returned with an invading army: King Edward II's forces crumbled before them, and Mortimer took power. He removed Edward II in the first deposition of a monarch i...