Welcome back folks, in light of the popularity of the new history podcast I thought I would provide something that might be of interest to you, rather than witter on about how busy I’ve been etc! Also, I will say that I am aware that I have still not posted my waxing lyrical about my time spent in Birmingham Museum last week. I promise I will post a little piece about it tomorrow.

    But now lets have a review of one of my favourite books of all time.

Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives

    Back when I was in college, which is a disheartening few years ago now, Terry Jones presented a short TV series on the BBC. This was Medieval Lives. I loved the series and as a result immediately bought the book. I started reading it the day it arrived through the letter box and didn’t give anything else any attention until I had finished it.

    This is the Terry Jones that many of you will know from the Monty Python gang, knowing this might make some people suspicious that this is likely to make this book another branch of some sort of comedy. This is however not the case, it certainly has it’s moments and there are many humourus stories covered, but this is a book of solid history. I do find however that it is written in a much less academic or maybe even less uptight style. Reading this is like reading a conversation in many ways, it seems that you could say things from this out loud and it wouldn’t sound like you were reading straight from wikipedia for example. It sounds like normal everyday talking, rather than simply telling you how it was!

    I have promised myself to keep these reviews short from no on so I will give you a brief overview of the structure and then let you get on. The book is separated into eight chapters, each covering a different person or group in society, these chapters are: Peasant, Minstrel, Outlaw, Monk, Philosopher, Knight, Damsel and of course King. Each chapter is made up of an explanation/description of what/who these people were along with various stories of the events in these peoples lives and tales about individual people who lived an interesting existence. There are some great little pieces in here, and an awful lot of genuinely fascinating events. This book is also however full of facts, it has a rather nice little explanation of the legal system, as with most of the things in the book, not vague at all and yet never bogged down in unnecessary details, just enough so that almost anybody would understand immediately and then continue reading without a second thought. Like the third bowl of porridge... Just Right!

    I have said it before and I’ll say it again, it is this books mixture of interesting stories and everyday, maybe even friendly language that made me realise just how good history can be, it is that simple formula that inspired me to first start my humble history podcast, and why Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives is still one of my most flicked through books on the shelf!

    If you are interested then I have provided links below to the book and also the TV series,

Thanks for reading,

I hope I have inspired you to take a look,

Until next time, as always look after yourself and have fun,

dan