The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: Life in the Age of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and The Great Fire of London

Description

The third in the series of Ian Mortimer's bestselling Time Traveller's Guides The past is a foreign country- this is your guidebook. If you could travel back in time, the period from 1660 to 1700 would make one of the most exciting destinations in history. It is the age of Samuel Pepys and the Great Fire of London; bawdy comedy and the libertine court of Charles II - the civil wars are over and a magnificent new era has begun. But what would it really be like to live in Restoration Britain? Where would you stay and what would you eat? How much should you pay for one of those elaborate wigs? Should you trust a physician who advises you to drink fresh cow's urine to cure your gout? Why are boys made to smoke in school? And why are you unlikely to get a fair trial in court? The third volume in the series of Ian Mortimer's bestselling Time Traveller's Guides answers these crucial questions and encourages us to reflect on the customs and practices of daily life. This unique guide not only teaches us about the seventeenth century but makes us look with fresh eyes at the modern world.

Dr Ian Mortimer is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Time Traveller's Guides to Medieval England, Elizabethan England, Restoration Britain and Regency Britain as well as four critically acclaimed medieval biographies, and numerous scholarly books and articles on subjects ranging in date from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. 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 in Moretonhampstead, on the edge of Dartmoor.

Ian Mortimer is among the best: a conjuror who is always bright, engaging and well-informed... Any tour of late 17th-century Britain is guaranteed to be exhilarating. And with Mortimer in charge, one always travels first class * Mail on Sunday * Ian Mortimer is a historical truffle hound... The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain is just such fun to read... Mortimer writes with real freshness and enthusiasm,... His book is a delightful read. * Sunday Times * This entertaining tourist guide brings the late 17th century alive...The latest Time Traveller's Guide will entertain and inform anyone with an interest in this extraordinary period * The Times * Thoroughly entertaining... It is crammed with insights, facts and enjoyable anecdotes, which create a sense of the experience of living in Britain between 1660 and 1700... This is a compelling book and one of considerable erudition... This is the book that will provide the most richly colourful account of Britain in this period * History Today * Everything you wanted to know about these fair isles between 1660 and 1700... Exciting times. * Sunday Express *