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Ian Mortimer

Goodreads Author

Born

in Petts Wood, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.ianmortimer.com/

Twitter

IanJamesFM

Genre

History, Historical Fiction, Memoir

Member Since

January 2010

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AKA James Forrester.

Dr Ian Mortimer is a historian and novelist, best known for his Time Traveller's Guides series. He has BA, MA, PhD and DLitt degrees from the University of Exeter and UCL. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society in 2004. Home for him and his family is the small Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead, which he occasioanlly introduces in his books. He also writes in other genres: his last novel The Outcasts of Time won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for historical fiction. His trilogy of novels set in the 1560s were published under his middle names, James Forrester. His most recent book is 'Why Running Matters' ...more

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Not a question just a heart-felt thanks for writing the Traveller's Guides. I have just read the Restoration England book (well, listened on Audible) and if that were possible it was even better than the Medieval and Elizabeth ones. I am a historian myself but have neve managed to get into the heart of a period of history like you. When is the next one?

Ian Mortimer Many thanks for your kind comments. The next one will be a TTG to Regency Britain - but it's coming slowly, very slowly. Scheduled for publication in …moreMany thanks for your kind comments. The next one will be a TTG to Regency Britain - but it's coming slowly, very slowly. Scheduled for publication in 2020. I hope you're patient!(less)

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This is only slightly a question, but I adore your book on Elizabethan England - I gave it 5 stars on this site which is rare for me to give nonfiction - so I thought it worth a shot. I was wondering: what sparked your love of that time period? I read both your book and saw the three-part series, and I really thought that you seemed to especially care about all parts of the Elizabethan Era.

Ian Mortimer Thanks for the question. To be honest, my interest in the Elizabethan period is no greater or less than my interest in the late medieval or the Restor…moreThanks for the question. To be honest, my interest in the Elizabethan period is no greater or less than my interest in the late medieval or the Restoration periods, or even the Regency. I suppose the sixteenth century is a bit of a high-water mark in our last thousand years, in that French had given way to the English language, and Catholicism to English Protestantism, and England's attention had shifted from rivalries with France to a wider outlook across the whole world and, indeed, towards the heavens. More great architecture survives from the period too, and more documentation and more portraits, and of course there's the creativity of its poets and playwrights, whose words speak directly to us. It has an earthiness and yet it was fascinatingly open to men of talent and education, it wasn't just the old brigade of the nobility and gentry holding court. So, yes, there's plenty to love - but in truth I am equally keen on the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. I tend to lose interest around the 1830s. Everything since then is really 'just the other day' - all that has happened of note since then is either based in technology (in the widest sense of the word) or extremist politics, or is just a continuation of what they started with the Industrial Revolution. All our modern preoccupations were cultural viewpoints by 1832 - political reform, democracy, relationships between the sexes, sexual identity, care for the poor, the social importance of scientific exploration, the wrongness of racism, the iniquities of slavery, the social responsibilities of government, the necessaity of quantification of the economy, and planning for the future, etc etc. As for what 'sparked' my fascination with the Elizabethan period - simply the fact that its legacy is all around me, in our culture, language, identity - everywhere, in everyone, everyday. If you can understand the root of things, you have a much better chance of understanding how society came to be as it is, and thus why things are as they are.
Hope that helps.
all the best,
Ian
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Ian Mortimer’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 40,527 ratings · 3,698 reviews · 41 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 22,959 ratings — published 2008 — 40 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England 4.09 avg rating — 4,856 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Outcasts of Time 3.70 avg rating — 4,051 ratings — published 2017	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation 4.19 avg rating — 2,191 ratings — published 2006 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain 4.23 avg rating — 1,554 ratings — published 2017 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March Ruler of England 1327-1330 4.13 avg rating — 963 ratings — published 2003 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain: The Immersive and Brilliant Historical Guide to Regency Britain 4.25 avg rating — 894 ratings — published 2022 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fears of Henry IV: The Life of England's Self-Made King 4.22 avg rating — 798 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	1415: Henry V's Year of Glory 4.01 avg rating — 667 ratings — published 2009 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Centuries of Change: Which Century Saw the Most Change and Why it Matters to Us 4.03 avg rating — 653 ratings — published 2014 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Series by Ian Mortimer

Time Traveller's Guides (4 books)
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Ian Mortimer (Goodreads Author)

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Ian answered Tamro's question: After reading your fantastic Henry IV: The Righteous King I was wondering why did Henry IV not marry off his sons to collect doweries (and make allies or reward those loyal to the Lancasters) as he spent pretty much his entire kingship in serious need of cash? This is a good question - not least because there is a marked difference between how he treated his daughters and his sons with regard to their marriages. It's a long time since I was closely involved with rethinking Henry and his family but, sixteen See Full Answer
May 09, 2022 06:18AM · 2 likes · like
Ian answered Jennie's question: Started with your guide to the Regency, and was delighted to find that there are three more to read. Can't wait! I'm trying to do some research on gentlemen's leisure pursuits from the Regency (fox hunting, fishing, and shooting), and wonder if you might have a recommendation of a modern book written as a history of that, or sources of the time that would give more insight into how it was gone about, etc.? Hi Jennie, thanks for your kind comment. I'm afraid I don't have any recommendations for a book covering that subject. Covering so much English history, I would never stop reading and never start writing if I delved into all the specialist secondary See Full Answer
Apr 02, 2022 07:09AM · 1 like · like

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Quotes by Ian Mortimer (?)

“‎W. H. Auden once suggested that to understand your own country you need to have lived in at least two others. One can say something similar for periods of time: to understand your own century you need to have come to terms with at least two others. The key to learning something about the past might be a ruin or an archive but the means whereby we may understand it is--and always will be--ourselves.”
― Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

tags: england, history, medieval, past, time-travel, travel

29 likes

“Justice is a relative concept in all ages. The fourteenth century is no exception.”
― Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

tags: history, justice, medieval-life

17 likes

“As you travel around medieval England you will come across a sport described by some contemporaries as 'abominable ... more common, undignified and worthless than any other game, rarely ending but with some loss, accident or disadvantage to the players themselves'. This is football.”
― Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century

tags: football, history, medieval-life, sport

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Polls

What book about the Tudors or Tudor England would you like to have as our Group Read in October 2018?

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

14 votes, 19.4%

The House of Beaufort: The Bastard Line that Captured the Crown by Nathen Amin

9 votes, 12.5%

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives

9 votes, 12.5%

Mary Tudor: England's First Queen by Anna Whitelock

7 votes, 9.7%

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

6 votes, 8.3%

A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess

6 votes, 8.3%

Watch the Lady by Elizabeth Fremantle

5 votes, 6.9%

Anne of Cleves: Henry's Luckiest Wife by D. Lawrence-Young

4 votes, 5.6%

The King is Dead: The Last Will and Testament of Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb

3 votes, 4.2%

1536: The Year That Changed Henry VIII by Suzannah Lipscomb

3 votes, 4.2%

Lady Mary by Lucy Worsley

3 votes, 4.2%

The Last Armada: Queen Elizabeth, Juan del Águila, and Hugh O'Neill: The Story of the 100-Day Spanish Invasion by Des Ekin

2 votes, 2.8%

The Voyage of the Destiny by Robert Nye

1 vote, 1.4%

72 total votes

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