The past is a foreign country: this is your guidebook.

Imagine you couldget into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? Should you go to a castle or a monastic guesthouse? And what are you going to eat? What sort of food are you going to be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord?

This isthe most astonishing social history book you are ever likely to read: revolutionaryin its concept,informativeandentertainingin its detail, andstartlingfor its portrayal of humanity in an age of violence, exuberance and fear.

BRAIN SHOTS: the byte-sized guide to acompletely different world:England in the Middle Ages

Ian Mortimer has BA and PhD degrees in history from Exeter University and an MA in archive studies from University College London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1998, and was awarded the Alexander Prize (2004) by the Royal Historical Society for his work on the social history of medicine. He is the author of three medieval biographies,The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer,The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, andThe Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King, published in 2003, 2006 and 2007 respectively by Jonathan Cape. He lives with his wife and three children on the edge of Dartmoor.

BRAIN SHOTS: the byte-sized guide to a completely different world: England in the Middle Ages