Ian James Forrester Mortimer, (born 22 September 1967) is a British historian and writer of historical fiction. He is best known for his book '' The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'', which became a ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' bestseller in paperback in 2010.

Biography

Mortimer was born in

Petts Wood Petts Wood is a town in south-east London, England, previously located in the historic county of Kent. It lies south of Chislehurst, west of St Paul's Cray and Poverest, north of Orpington and Crofton, and east of Southborough and Bromley ...

, and was educated at

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational independent school in the British public school tradition, for day and boarding pupils aged 13–18, in the town of Eastbourne on the south coast of England. The College's headmaster is Tom Lawson. Over ...

, the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a public university , public research university in Exeter, Devon, England, United Kingdom. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of Min ...

(BA, PhD, DLitt) and

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(MA). Between 1993 and 2003 he worked for several major research institutions, including the

Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (widely known as the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and abbreviated as the HMC to distinguish it from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England), was a United Kingdom Royal Com ...

, the

and the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

. His first publications were poems, published in various literary magazines. In 2000 his work '31 December 1999' was awarded the University of Exeter's prize for a 'poem for the Millennium', open to all present and past students of the university, and judged by the then poet laureate, Andrew Motion. From 2003 to 2009 he published a sequence of biographies of medieval political leaders: first

Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March Roger Mortimer, 3rd Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, 1st Earl of March (25 April 1287 – 29 November 1330), was an English nobleman and powerful Marcher Lord who gained many estates in the Welsh Marches and Ireland following his advantageous marri ...

, then

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...

, and Henry IV, in addition to ''1415'', a year in the life of

Henry V Henry V may refer to: People * Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026) * Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125) * Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161) * Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (c. 1173–1227) * Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (121 ...

. Mortimer's best known book, however, is ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'', first published in the United Kingdom in 2008. It was followed by ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England'' (which became a BBC TV series, presented by the author) and ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain''. He is also well known for pioneering, in his first two books and an article in ''

The English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, and wo ...

'', the argument (based on evidence such as the

Fieschi Letter The Fieschi Letter was written to the English king Edward III in circa 1337 by a Genoese priest at Avignon, Manuele Fieschi (d. 1349). He was a papal notary and a member of the influential Fieschi family, who later became bishop of Vercelli. The l ...

) that

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

did not die in

Berkeley Castle Berkeley Castle ( ; historically sometimes spelled as ''Berkley Castle'' or ''Barkley Castle'') is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. The castle's origins date back to the 11th century, and it has been desi ...

in 1327. Mortimer has also carried out research into the

social history Social history, often called the new social history, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in his ...

of early

modern medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practice ...

. His essay "The Triumph of the Doctors" was awarded the 2004 Alexander Prize by the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

. In this essay he demonstrated that ill and injured people close to death shifted their hopes of physical salvation from an exclusively religious source of healing power (God, or Jesus

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, names and titles), was ...

) to a predominantly human one (physicians and surgeons) over the period 1615–1670, and argued that this shift of outlook was among the most profound changes

western society Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''. image:Plato Pio-Cle ...

has ever experienced. In 2011, Mortimer entered the genre of historical fiction, publishing the first book from his

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

''Clarenceux Trilogy'' using the pen name of James Forrester. James Forrester are Mortimer's middle names. His fourth novel, ''The Outcasts of Time'', was published under his ordinary name: it won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction. Since 1999 he has lived in the small town of Moretonhampstead in Devon, England, which is in

Dartmoor Dartmoor is an upland area in southern Devon, England. The moorland and surrounding land has been protected by National Park status since 1951. Dartmoor National Park covers . The granite which forms the uplands dates from the Carboniferous ...

National Park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

. In 2003 he was appointed by the Secretary of State Member of

Dartmoor National Park Authority The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) is a national park authority in England, legally responsible for Dartmoor in Devon. It came into existence in its present form in 1997, being preceded by a committee of Devon County Council (from 1951 t ...

, representing the parishes. In 2009 he was reappointed as a Member by the Secretary of State, this time representing the national interest – a role which he continued to perform until 2017. Other public appointments have included the Lord Chancellor's Forum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research, 2011–17 (subsequently known as the Forum on Archives and Academic Research) and the Fabric Advisory Committee of

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The present building was complete by about 140 ...

, 2011–16.

Personal life

Mortimer is the nephew of the British tennis player

Angela Mortimer Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer Barrett, MBE (née Mortimer; born 21 April 1932) is a British former world No. 1 tennis player. Mortimer won three Grand Slam singles titles: the 1955 French Championships, the 1958 Australian Championships, ...

. Among his interests he includes running: in 2017 he wrote a memoir about the meaning of running, which relates the various lessons he had learnt from taking part in

parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) ...

and half marathons – which was published as ''Why Running Matters: lessons in life, pain and exhilaration, from 5K to the marathon'' (Summersdale, 2019).

Views of Wikipedia

Mortimer is highly critial of

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

and

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

Honours

Mortimer is a

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

(FRHistS). On 12 February 2015, he was elected a

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

(FSA).

Historical works (selected)

* ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: Life in the Age of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and The Great Fire of London'' (The Bodley Head, 2017) * ''What isn't History? Selected Articles and Speeches on Writing History and Historical Fiction'' (Rosetta (ebook only), 2017) * ''Human Race: Ten Centuries of Change on Earth'' (Vintage, 2015; formerly published as ''Centuries of Change: which century saw the most change and why it matters to us'' by The Bodley Head, 2014) * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Sixteenth Century'' (Viking, 2012) (paper: Penguin, 2013) * ''Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal Conspiracies'' (Continuum, 2010) * ''1415: Henry V's Year of Glory'' (The Bodley Head, 2009) * ''The Dying and the Doctors: the Medical Revolution in Seventeenth-Century England'' (The Royal Historical Society, 2009) * '' The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century'' (The Bodley Head, 2008) * "What isn't History? The Nature and Enjoyment of History in the Twenty-First Century", ''

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

'', 93, 4 (October 2008), pp. 454–74. * "Beyond the Facts: how true originality in history has fallen foul of postmodernism, research targets and commercial pressure", ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' (26 September 2008), pp. 16–17. * ''The Fears of Henry IV: the Life of England's Self-Made King'' (Jonathan Cape, 2007) * ''The Perfect King: the Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation'' (Jonathan Cape, 2006) * ''The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle'', ''

'', cxx, 489 (2005), pp. 1175–1214. * ''The Triumph of the Doctors: Medical Assistance to the Dying, 1570–1720'', ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', 15 (2005), pp. 97–116. * ''The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327–1330'' (Jonathan Cape, 2003) * ''Berkshire Probate Accounts, 1583–1712'' (Berkshire Record Society, 1999) * ''Berkshire Glebe Terriers, 1634'' (Berkshire Record Society, 1995)

Historical fiction (writing as Ian Mortimer)

* ''The Outcasts of Time'' (UK: Simon & Schuster, 2017 US: Pegasus, 2018).

Historical fiction (writing as James Forrester)

* ''Sacred Treason'' (UK: Headline, 2010 US: Sourcebooks, 2012) * ''The Roots of Betrayal'' (UK: Headline, 2011 US: Sourcebooks, 2013) * ''The Final Sacrament'' (UK: Headline, 2012 US: Sourcebooks, 2013)

References

External links

Random House (publishers)

United Agents (literary agent)

Continuum (publishers)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortimer, Ian 1967 births Living people 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians 21st-century biographers 21st-century British novelists Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Exeter British biographers British historical novelists British medical historians British medievalists Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Historians of the early modern period Historians of England People educated at Eastbourne College People from Petts Wood People from Teignbridge (district) Social historians Writers from London Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period