• The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

  • A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
  • By: Ian Mortimer
  • Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
  • Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (2,205 ratings)

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The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England  By  cover art

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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Publisher's summary

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?

Ian Mortimer shows us that the past is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived. He sets out to explain what life was like in the most immediate way, through taking you to the Middle Ages.

The result is the most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: evolutionary in its concept, informative and entertaining in its detail, and startling for its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance and fear.

©2008 Ian Mortimer (P)2009 Isis Publishing Ltd

Critic reviews

"A jaunty journey through the 14th century, one that wriggles with the stuff of everyday life." ( Guardian)

Featured Article: Travel to the Middle Ages with These Audiobooks and Podcasts


The Medieval Era, the tumultuous centuries from the fall of the Roman Empire to the advent of the Enlightenment, is one of the most alluring and intriguing periods of human history. Ready to travel back in time? Check out these audiobooks and podcasts, which cover everything from Icelandic sagas and Medieval murder to the queens of Medieval England and the scientific advancements of the Arab World.

What listeners say about The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Detailed, Interesting and Entertaining

This book takes you by the hand and teaches you everything you need to know if you were to time-travel to medieval England, hence the title. Sometimes I almost felt the narrator walking by my side along the road, pointing at various places, people or events, stopping from time to time to explain some concept of medieval life that my 21st century brain might have trouble to comprehend.

Also, Mortimer succeeds in going into detail while keeping the listener entertained and attentive.

Finally, the narrator's voice is warm and clear, which is a big plus for me as English isn't my primary language.

A great read. I recommend this book to anyone who wonders what life would be if we were born in those times instead of our own.

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54 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Prepare to Dig Deeper Than You Thought Possible

This is the most unique history book I've ever had the privilege to journey through. And make no mistake, this one is very much a journey. The author encourages you to use all 5 senses, peek behind every locked door, and worm your way into all walks of medieval society as though nobody noticed you weren't native to the time. I almost feel like this should be put into the hands of anyone who claims they don't like history, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who's already interested. It's the perfect companion to any tome filled with names, dates, and places precisely because it isn't THAT book. Instead, it comes across more like a visceral experience. I'd love to have more books like this.

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27 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved It!

I love this time period in England and stumbled across this book recently while browsing for something new. I felt as if I had gone back in time and had my own personal tour guide who took the time to point out a lot of little details often left out of other medieval history books. I have listened to this book several times and never get tired of "looking" at medieval England while my guide answers all my questions.

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fun popular history that stays on task

If you are considering this book, then you are certainly already interested in 14th century English history. If that is the case, the choice is easy, since The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century (TTTGtME:AHfVttFC for short) basically describes exactly what the book does. It is entertaining, well-written, well-received by real critics, and (apparently, since they aren't in the audiobook) has lots of references. You'll learn all sorts of interesting facts, and be given some very vivid descriptions of everything from plagues to the experience entering a town.

The only weakness is that, since there is no real narrative or argument here, the book lacks a focal character or idea, and moves back and forth in time. To that extent, it is less compelling then, say Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, which gives a better sense of how individual lives progress in the Middle Ages by following one powerful family. It makes up for this in breadth, of course, and TTTGtME:AHfVttFC is immensely entertaining, and often enlightening, while being well-read. If you like the subject, you should certainly add it to your library.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely wonderful

So what was life like in the 14th century? I have often wondered how people lived during the feudal period in England and suspected that the movie versions were not only wrong but completely misleading, but I never actually knew. This book filled in those answers.

What Mr Mortimer has done is provide a witty, educated and well rounded look at life during the 1300s that covers almost all of the areas that I, personally, was interested in. This book discusses what life was like for both the ordinary people, the nobility and those between and covers so many areas of life - the law, medicine, education, food, religion, town markets, travel, class and moral obligations, manorial justice and much more - that you can not help but come away both educated and entertained. His writing is full of wit, light, breezy and, at the same time, he manages to cover all aspects of life during this period in great detail and answer questions that were forming in my mind as I read. In summary I enjoyed this book so much that the first thing I did when I finished it was to look to see if he had any other books of the same type about other eras of English history and, when I found one, I immediately put it on my wish list.

The book is very well read my Jonathan Keeble and listening to it was almost as much fun as a real vacation. Highly recommended to those who want to know how people lived during Medieval England.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Warning - This Is Not A True Historical Work...

I'll keep this brief. For work I don't enjoy, I usually do this, because there's no reason to browbeat. Sio, let's cut to the chase.

First, the delivery is under par. I expected more, and maybe that's my problem. It's a shame, as I love historical works. This is too shallow. Also, a HUGE problem is that the author has taken different periods in medieval England, and mashed his favorites together into one made-up view of his perceived history. Much of this didn't exist at the same time, sometimes decades apart, so actually, this is NOT a true historical view. Sorry, but that becomes fiction when an author attempts this - And when he or she does so, it is no longer historical. To call it such, is an insult to any listener.

Again, maybe that's MY problem, not yours.

When I delete an audiobook, there's a reason, and did I ever delete this one.

Save your credits for a better read.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Unique Presentation

Hmmm... History as a travelogue.

The format works extremely well here. While the actual history is well, pedestrian, that's not the point.

By framing the exposition as "Here is what you'll find..." or "this might surprise you..." the reader is engaged with the culture on an intuitive level seldom experienced outside the trappings of historical fiction.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Lukewarm (from the view of a romantic)

The medieval time period is my all time favourite so when I saw this audiobook I was very excited. The author has a crisp English accent which helps with the time transport. I felt like a fly on the wall of a time machine. However I could have done without some of the boring details.

Part of the fascination with medieval times is castles, maidens, knights, tales of sorcery and chivalry. The author lets you down with a giant thud covering these subjects. He gets into details of how medival times really were dispelling all of the glamour and myths that lure you into the time period in the first place. The truth was boring and dull. I learned more about being drawn and quartered than I would have liked.

I would have also liked the author to spend more time on interesting things like hygiene. What did they use for toothbrushes? Hair brushes? Women's cycles? Child birthing/midwifery procedures? How did they take baths? etc. The author touches on these subjects lightly with diets of nobility and peasants, houses, disposal of waste etc but the focus was more on social hierarchy, customs, artists, wars and politics. The things that are necessary to learn about but BORING.

I wanted to learn more about courtship. How did peasants and nobility court their prospective spouses? How common was it for peasants to become involved with nobility and vice versa? He touched on that frequently referencing Chauncer’s genius. I wanted more but it’s still a pretty good audiobook.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining and informative

Jonathan Keeble gives an excellent reading of Ian Mortimer's depiction of life in the 14th century. It's important to note the century, because even though the title refers to the Medieval period, the book focuses on a time that was pretty near the end of that period. It is, as much as anything else, a background study for lovers of Geoffrey Chaucer - who turns out, in the closing pages, to be the closest thing to a hero the book describes.

Mortimer's range is vast and his style is easy. The "time traveler" idea is a light framework for the discussion: it lets him address "you," the reader, in the second person, making the narrative even more vivid.

I don't know if the book includes everything, because it's the first one I've read on the subject. But it covers a lot: the layout of towns, the location of markets and privies, the clothes, the currency, the food, the houses (and hovels), and laws and outlaws. (By definition, an outlaw was someone who had put himself outside the protection of the law and could be beheaded on sight by anyone.) There are broad descriptions, but there are also fascinating anecdotes.

It was a brutal, dirty, smelly time, but Mortimer's account isn't one of unremitting misery. He talks about dances and music and plays, about the kinds of trees to be found in the forests, and the boys who played football in the streets.

It's an enjoyable listen, and it whetted my appetite for more - more books about the period, and more books by Ian Mortimer.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

If you love Medieval...

This book is amazing...I've been a long time fan of these times and have read lots of books like "Here Be Dragons" by Sharon K. Penman which anyone which likes these time should try (and there are two more of that trilogy) - but I've long wondered what it would be like to live there in those times and this book tells the story of how life is there - I've said many times that if I could go back to those times and be a King's sister or wife, I would...but after listening to this book I realize that I have it "pretty good" right here in 2010. This book is great and I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys this time in history as I do, to hear what it is probably like. Definitely recommend this!

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