A Year In The Life Of Medieval England

Toni Mount • £10.99
Amberley Books

The medieval era is often associated with dynastic struggles, gruesome wars and the formidable influence of the Church. But what about the everyday experience of the royal subjects and common people? Here, alongside the coronations, diplomatic dealings and key battles, can be found the fabric of medieval life as it was really lived, in its folk songs, recipes and local gossip. With a diverse range of entries – one for each day of the year – historian Toni Mount provides an almanac for lovers of all things medieval.

A detailed picture is gathered from original sources such as chronicles, manor court rolls, coroners’ rolls and the records of city councils. We learn not only of the royals and nobles of official history but also the quarrels of a miscellany of characters, including William and Christopher of York, Nalle Kittewritte who stole her neighbours’ washing, and Margery from Hereford who was murdered by an Oxford student. The world in which they laboured, loved and lived is vividly reimagined, one day at a time.

Churchyards

Roger Bowdler • £8.99
Amberley Books
There is much to discover in churchyards. Memorials range from the grandest mausolea to the humblest of stones and wooden markers, and many of these form the earliest tangible evidence of family history.

This book is part of the Britain’s Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain’s past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with churchyards in all their variety.

Dickens and Christmas

Lucinda Hawksley • £19.99
Pen & Sword
This is an exploration of the 19thcentury phenomenon that became the Christmas we know and love today – and of the writer who changed, forever, the ways in which it is celebrated. This new book, written by one of his direct descendants, explores not only Dickens’s most famous work, A Christmas Carol, but also his all-toooften overlooked other Christmas novellas. It takes the readers through the seasonal short stories he wrote, for both adults and children, includes much-loved festive excerpts from his novels, uses contemporary newspaper clippings, and looks at Christmas writings by Dickens’ contemporaries. To give an even more personal insight, readers can discover how the Dickens family itself celebrated Christmas, through the eyes of Dickens’s unfinished autobiography, family letters, and his children’s memoirs.