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 famine of the time
In this book Ian Mortimer reveals a country in which life expectancy is in the early thirties,people still starve to death and Catholics are persecuted for their faith. Yet it produces some of the finest writing in the English language,some of the most magnificent architecture,and sees Elizabeth's subjects settle in America and circumnavigate the globe.
Welcome to a country that is,in all its contradictions,the very crucible of the modern world.
A historian's answer to Doctor Who,Ian Mortimer is a polymath whose prolific publishing record includes forays into fiction (where he also writes under the pseudonym of James Forrester) and poetry alongside his primary historical and biographical works. He is best known for his Time Travellers Guides,transporting readers to Medieval,Elizabethan and Restoration England. He is also the author of key historical biographies including The Greatest Traitor,The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III,Father of the English Nation,The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King and 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory.
Publisher: Vintage PublishingISBN: 9780099542070Number of pages: 432Weight: 366 gDimensions: 198 x 129 x 27 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Ian Mortimer manages to inform and delight in equal measure.As Mortimer puts it,"sometimes the past will inspire you,sometimes it will make you weep". What it won't do,thanks to this enthralling book,is leave you unmovedWith Shakespeare on hand to give us extra insight into how Elizabethans saw themselves (and what they - often to our eyes inexplicably - found funny),and a society playing out its growing sense of self-awareness as it tiptoes to a modern age,the stage is set for a fresh and funny book that wears its learning lightlyMortimer brings the same depth and flair to the age of Shakespeare and the Virgin Queen. From dental hygiene to table manners,the findings fascinate - even if we don't wish that we were thereMortimer's book has something for everyone... His curiosity is boundless and his profound scholarship is leavened by a sense of fun
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