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.

By:   Ian Mortimer
Imprint:   Methuen (UK)
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 39mm,  Width: 240mm,  Spine: 162mm
Weight:   853g
ISBN:  

9781847921147

ISBN 10:   1847921140
Pages:   432
Publication Date:   May 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Dr Ian Mortimer is the author of the bestselling Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, eight other books and many peer-reviewed articles on English history between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was awarded the Alexander Prize (2004) for his work on the social history of medicine in seventeenth-century England. In June 2011, the University of Exeter awarded him a higher doctorate (D.Litt.) by examination, on the strength of his historical work. He also writes historical fiction, published under his middle names (James Forrester). He lives with his wife and three children on the edge of Dartmoor, in Devon. For further information about him and a full bibliography, see his website: www.ianmortimer.com.

It is a magnificent social history, rich and scholarly, but with the verve and intrigue of a great novel -- Rory Clements 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 unmoved -- Kathryn Hughes Mail on Sunday An astonishingly colourful portrait of an astonishingly colourful era, one sophisticated enough to include, and make sense of, all its contradictions. It is as if Mortimer has restored an old painting, stripping it of its cloaking layers of brown varnish to reveal its vitality and life afresh -- Toby Clements Daily Telegraph Mortimer brings...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 there Independent Ian Mortimer triumphs. Using a heady mix of historical fact, original documents and intelligent guesswork, he pieces together not just how the Elizabethans lived but how they thought -- Nigel Nelson Tribune