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£25.00
Published
21 October 2025
Hardback
9781913083670
Ebook
9781913083687
Press Release
Coming soon.
By Ian Mortimer:

 

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.

As he ranges from the Great Plague to the Great Freeze, from Armada to Austen, and from tobacco to toenails, he shines a light into corners of history we never knew were so fascinating – or so revealing of the whole.

How did the button change life in the Middle Ages? If you found yourself at a smart Elizabethan party, should you kiss your hostess on the lips? Why were pistols safer than swords in a duel? And how come Regency Londoners drank so much port?

This is Mortimer at his accessible and witty best. As ever, his aim is not only to bring the past to life but also to illuminate our own times.

Old Street Publishing Mortimer's A-Zs of English History

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.

As he ranges from the Great Plague to the Great Freeze, from Armada to Austen, and from tobacco to toenails, he shines a light into corners of history we never knew were so fascinating – or so revealing of the whole.

How did the button change life in the Middle Ages? If you found yourself at a smart Elizabethan party, should you kiss your hostess on the lips? Why were pistols safer than swords in a duel? And how come Regency Londoners drank so much port?

This is Mortimer at his accessible and witty best. As ever, his aim is not only to bring the past to life but also to illuminate our own times.

 25.00
 
 

‘After The Canterbury Tales this has to be the most entertaining book ever written about the middle ages’
—Guardian on The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

 
 
  • '…as if Mortimer has restored an old painting, stripping it of its cloaking layers of brown varnish to reveal its vitality and life afresh'
    —Daily Telegraph on The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
  • ‘If only they’d taught history like this when I was at school… Irreverent, witty and beautifully democratic, this is a delight’
    —i on The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain
  • ‘This is ideal history; tales of people like us, who tell you that the past is closer than you think’
    —Daily Telegraph on The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain
  • ‘A sparkling, eye-opening book’
    —Mail on Sunday on Medieval Horizons
 
 
Ian Mortimer

Ian Mortimer is the bestselling author of the Time Traveller’s Guides series, as well as Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter and four critically acclaimed biographies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1998 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2015. His work on the social history of medicine won the Alexander Prize in 2004 and was published by the Royal Historical Society in 2009. He lives with his wife on the edge of Dartmoor.