''The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century'' is a

handbook A handbook is a type of reference work, or other collection of instructions, that is intended to provide ready reference. The term originally applied to a small or portable book containing information useful for its owner, but the ''Oxford Eng ...

about Late Medieval England by British historian Ian Mortimer. It was first published on 2 October 2008 by

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English book publishing imprint of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1887 by John Lane and Elkin Mathews, The Bodley Head existed as an independent entity or as part of multiple consortia until it was acquired by Random ...

, and a later edition with more pages was released on 29 February 2012. The volume debunks and explains various

myths Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

about the period. The book is confined to the

14th century The 14th century lasted from 1 January 1301 (represented by the Roman numerals MCCCI) to 31 December 1400 (MCD). It is estimated that the century witnessed the death of more than 45 million lives from political and natural disasters in both Euro ...

in England, with passing references to the

Continent A continent is any of several large geographical regions. Continents are generally identified by convention (norm), convention rather than any strict criteria. A continent could be a single large landmass, a part of a very large landmass, as ...

. Mortimer goes into details about food, clothing, building materials, the layout of houses, but also covers things like laws, customs, travel, entertainment. It is ground-breaking in historical literature in that it is written entirely in the present tense.

Illustrations

All the illustrations in the volume were provided by

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Reception

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. Sue Arnold, writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', commented "After ''The Canterbury Tales'' this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the Middle Ages." Professor Stephen Howe, writing in ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', remarked that it was "Perhaps the most enjoyable history book I've read all year." A review written by

Kathryn Hughes Kathryn Hughes (born 1959) is a British academic, journalist and biographer. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature. Life She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and the Univer ...

for ''

'' 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... 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... deft summary of life in the high medieval period." However she found the stylistic choice of narration to be "awkward". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

s short review by Aaron Leitko said it had a " Fodor's-style framework", like a travel book into the "heart of a different time zone".

Tom Holland Thomas Stanley Holland (born 1 June 1996) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award, he featured on the ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 Europe list of 2019. Some publications have called him one of the most ...

, writing for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'', described the volume as an "old-fashioned study". Holland also proposed that Mortimer felt embarrassed to write about what was already "familiar to a reader in the 19th century". Mortimer addressed Holland's criticism by implying that Holland had failed to understand his approach, going as far as to call Holland's review "bizarre". Mortimer believed that Holland wanted it to be "semi-fictionalised", and explained that such an approach would trivialise a work intended to be useful to students and that would stand the "test of time".

Sequels

The book has spawned several sequels such as: * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Sixteenth Century'' was published in 2012 by

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

* ''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 * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain'' was published in 2020 by Random House

Popular culture

Various big YouTube historians—such as Raffaello Urbani ("Metatron") and Skallagrim Nilsson—have produced videos about the book and endorsed it.

References

External links

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England
at Mortimer's website {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England, The 14th century in England 2008 non-fiction books 2012 non-fiction books 21st-century history books British non-fiction books Handbooks and manuals History books about the Middle Ages The Bodley Head books History books about England