The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

I was a British studies major in college in the 80s. I wish I had a book like this at that time.

This is one of my favorite books. If you wonder what life was like in 16th England and, presumably, Europe as well, you will find it here. The author knows his readers and answers the questions you may have and some you didnt think to ask. He shares intricate and intimate details of the typical life of the aristocrat, the (scare, but rising) middle class, and the hardships of those who must struggle to survive (and sometimes don't). Details, details, and more wonderful details - I have wondered about them while reading other books but I found the answers here. You can walk through the bustling, dynamic, crowded streets of Shakespeare's London, one of the most populous cities in Europe even 400 years ago, where wealth and poverty live side by side (like in the 21st century) and maybe take in a play at The Globe, where you can actually see Shakespeare perform in his own plays, maybe Hamlet or MacBeth. Visit the little towns of Stratford and Depford, typical of small towns throughout England. While there, you can stop by and pay respects to the two illustrious persons still buried there in their respective resting-places.There are strict hierarchies re social-economic-educational-behavioral, and legal restrictions you must follow lest you be put in the Tower Of London for your transgressions, and to only be released at the Queen's pleasure. (Unless you have $ or connections in high places).Not only is this book well-researched, referenced, and written, it glows with rare insight, compassion, and an extra-heavy dose of humor, making it worth one, perhaps several, readings. Far better to buy your own copy than repeatedly checking it out in your local library, if they have it. As one of my favorite books, I certainly can recommend it quite highly.

Ian Mortimer has done a lot of reasearch on this book as he did on Mediavel England, its sister. I gave it the rating I did, simply because of the veracity of it references and research.First off: Don't read it if you have night mares! Going back with Ian to a very sordid history, the frightening part is when you stop to think, this was say 500 years ago. Maybes so, but think ahead and how will people read our history of today, and think.......good grief, how did they manage to exist! That is the scary bit.I really don't think much has changed since Elizabethan times. The Church has lost a lot of its power, but still carries on in its wicked ways. The cases of paedophilea, and in Eire, the cases of nuns and the Magdalene Convents, which are being investigated today. The bribery we read is still at large, only more sophisticated and devious.Take the case of cleanliness. Abllutions, all that sort of thing. Then the nonsense we hear from the Church, the Black Death is God's answer to our sinful lives...........till they find the Convents and Church dying like flies! So they have to shut up.Sailing on a ship, is virtually a floating bedlam. The filth and squalor is unbelievable. And it may go on for 3 years!Elizabeth was an Autocratic ruler, who probably today would be in a padded cell!The Lords of the Manor, rotten with syphillis, raping maids, making them pregnant and carrying the disease, then tossing them out on the streets, where vagrancy was a hanging offence. The J.P's taking bribes and ignoring what happens. The forbidding of writing diaries as a penal offence. Woe betide you if you were a Catholic, or Puritan.Really we have Hollywood to blame for this nonsense in our present day heads for what we think. Hardly anyone bathed or washed! They would not even drink the water, simply because the excretia and pots were emptied in the rifvers.Truly, truth is stranger than fiction.................I would say ......" Truth is far more frightening than fiction"!Skip your penny dreadfulls and read this book................IF YOU DARE!

A great companion to A Time-traveler's Guide to Medieval England by the same author. I keep both of these books beside my favorite reading chair and enjoy occasionally picking up one and reading here and there just for fun. Very informative and well laid out. Discovering the foibles and tender underbellies of previous ages provides a leavening perspective on the craziness of the present day.

If you want to experience everyday life in Tudor England this is the book for you!

This is a good book, but it is not quite as engaging as TTTGT Medieval England was. I think it has less of a narrative style, and instead feels more informative. I'm still enjoying the book, and feel I am learning a lot about this time period, which I have never really studied in depth before. I have another book on some big personalities in science during this time period, and was kind of lost trying to place some of the events in history, and this book has helped bring that book to life! Still definitely worth a read, and I will still be buying the rest of the series eventually.

Terrific and comprehensive book describing every aspect of life in Elizabethan England. Ian Mortimer leaves no stone unturned, discussing every aspect of life, from one's diet, to transportation, clothing, jobs- you name it. Jam packed with interesting information, the reader takes away the sights and smells of living in the 16th century. Each chapter is filled with little gems, nuggets to keep the reader interested and compelled to learn more. I came out of this book learning that the Elizabethan age was a turning point, where new discoveries, and knowledge gave the world a nudge to grow into the modern age. Mortimer states "It is often said of Shakespeare that he is "not of an age but for all time"- a line originally penned by Ben Johnston. But Shakespeare is of an age-Elizabethan England. It makes him. It gives him a stage, a language, and an audience. If Shakespeare is "for all time," then so too is Elizabethan England."

Having recently read the author's Time Travellers Guide to Restoration England, I was very interested to read about Elizabethan England. What I particularly like about Ian Mortimer's books are the incredible attention to detail, even down to the mundane habits of daily life. eg: How people wash, dress, what they eat, sleep, even go to the toilet. Nothing is left out. You are left with a complete picture of life in Elizabethan England, and I certainly would not wish to have lived back then. But it is an incredible read.

Although well written, and fairly well researched, I've only given 4* because it is not really a book for someone with a knowledge of the period. Generally accurate, there are a number of major inaccuracies, some weak explanations, and a lot of omissions. For the general reader this will not matter greatly, and they can enjoy a tramp through the highways and byways of Elizabethan England. As someone who is very immersed in the period I learned very little that was new to me, and was often annoyed by the book's faults, especially the omissions which often meant that the reader was left with an incomplete idea of an unfinished explanation.I would certainly recommend this to the general reader. Parts were, in fact, rather amusing. However, in the few years since this was written, there has been a lot of new information about the period that has made this book far less accurate for the more informed reader.

This is a highly entertaining, fascinating and very readable book, which treats the reader to the closest thing we will ever get to an understanding of what it would have been like to live in the reign of Elizabeth 1, short of actual time travel to see for ourselves.Mortimer covers all aspects of life for Elizabethans, through the creation of a guide book for the time traveller. He explains what the landscape would have looked and smelled like in the countryside and in the towns, and what life would have been like for people living in the numerous and often confusing social hierarchies. He gives advice to the time traveller on, amongst other things, how to educate your children, how to travel, how to follow your religious beliefs safely, what to eat, what to wear, and how to conduct yourself politely. Throughout, Mortimer provides fascinating accounts of life, with numerous anecdotes to bring the past alive.This is every bit as good, and maybe even better, than  The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England , by the same author.Quite superb - highly recommended. The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

This book is one of my favourite history books, an antidote to the usual linear chronological and elite-obsessed history books about what monarchs and nobles did. This book is for those who wonder where Elizabethan people went to the loo, how they kept clean, what diseases they suffered from, and what happened if they broke the law.Elizabethan life was violent lawless smelly and usually pretty short (if you didn't die in a brawl then the plague or influenza would probably get you). The part on medicine and diseases is terrifying - medicine was pretty worthless and so many diseases which are innocuous nowadays were fatal then - it was not rare for a third of the population of a town to be carried off by plague or something else.Queen Bess herself got smallpox at the beginning of her reign, and had black teeth by the end of it, but went topless in Court in front of the French ambassador (a respectable Elizabethan woman would never show any leg, but showing breasts was fine, as long as she was unmarried).A couple of little suggestions to improve the book: more illustrations would have helped, especially as regards clothes, and musical instruments. A more detailed guide to Elizabethan English would have been welcome too (a guidebook needs a phrasebook incorporated).

Where many books are obsessed with the well documented lives of the rich and renowned, this book looks at many more humble aspects that time travellers can use in day-to-day life to avoid causing offence, being mugged or even getting strung up. It’s a top to bottom explanation of social hierarchies and a phrase book to assist you knowing who you may be sitting next to in the inns.