Ian Mortimer

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...

In these sparkling A to Zs, time-travelling historian Ian Mortimer visits four classic periods of English history: the fourteenth century, the Elizabethan age, the Restoration and the Regency.

Edward’s life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father’s throne, and started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting...

Over a thousand years of history. One house. Countless lives. This is the extraordinary story of England told through one ordinary house – from the bestselling author of the acclaimed Time Traveller’s Guides. This book tells the history of England from the point of view of the people who...

In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the internet in a medieval joust – whose side would you be on? In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated...

Imagine you could travel back to the 14th century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? And what are you going to eat....

‘Beautifully written and superbly executed’ Times 'A joyous romp around England’s dark past' Suzie Feay, Guardian From 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...

Brought to you by Penguin. In the latest volume of his celebrated series of Time Traveller's Guides - after the Middle Ages, Elizabethan England and Restoration Britain - Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in British history: the Regency (aka Georgian England)...

If you could travel back in time, the period from 1660 to 1700 would make one of the most exciting destinations in history. It’s the age of Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London, bawdy comedy and the libertine court of Charles II, Christopher Wren in architecture, Henry Purcell in music...

Brought to you by Penguin. We tend to think about the Middle Ages as a dark and backward time, characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. We believe that life was unchanging over the period, so if a peasant fell asleep in in the year 1000 and woke up six hundred years later, he would...

"A compelling page-turner" about the medieval English baron who invaded his own country and deposed a king (Alison Weir, author of Queen Isabella). 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...

King Henry IV survived at least eight plots to dethrone or kill him in the first six years of his reign. However he had not always been so unpopular. In his youth he had been a great chivalric champion and crusader. In 1399, at the age of thirty-two, he was greeted as the saviour of the realm...

A memoir about the meaning of running from renowned historian and author of The Time Traveller's Guides. You might run for fitness. You might run for speed. But ultimately, running is about much more than the physical act itself. It is about the challenges we face in life, and how we measure up...

Henry V is regarded as the great English hero, lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and his rigorous application of justice. But what was he really like? In this ground-breaking book, Ian Mortimer portrays Henry in the pivotal year of his reign. Recording the dramatic...

Henry IV is not famous except for the plays that bear his name: He is not even a "much-maligned" king. He is normally overshadowed by his far more famous son, Henry V, despite his many achievements....

In this speech, Dr. Mortimer applies a professional historical methodological approach to the Shakespeare authorship question....

Nicht berühmte Herrscher, grausame Kriege oder denkwürdige Ereignisse sind das Thema des Historikers Ian Mortimer, sondern der Alltag der Menschen im Mittelalter: Wie feierten sie? Worüber lachten sie? Wie liebten sie? Mortimer beschreibt, wie es in den engen Gassen roch, welche Mahlzeiten...

Welches der vergangenen zehn Jahrhunderte hat die größten Veränderungen erlebt, welches hat die Menschheit am weitesten vorangebracht? Was war das Besondere eines jeden Jahrhunderts? Auf einem Streifzug durch die vergangenen 1000 Jahre führt uns Ian Mortimer zu den großen Zeiten der...

Wir neigen dazu, das Mittelalter als eine dunkle, rückständige und konstante Zeit zu sehen, die von Gewalt, Unwissenheit und Aberglaube geprägt war. Im Gegensatz dazu glauben wir, dass Fortschritt auf Wissenschaft und technischer Innovation beruht und dass uns erst die Erfindungen der letzten...

Die Zeit von Shakespeare und Königin Elisabeth I. gilt als »goldenes Zeitalter«. Aber wie war es eigentlich wirklich, im England des 16. Jahrhunderts zu leben? Wir reisen mit Ian Mortimer zurück und spazieren durch die Straßen Londons. Ein Prediger brüllt seine Botschaft in die Menge aus...