This was a very interesting and informative look at how we would survive in those times (we wouldn’t!) and it really kept me engaged the whole time. Very enjoyable for someone who’s interested in how very different our lives are from those in the past.

Overall a fun read. Very quick and light, the type of history book everyone can handle. I have a few people in mind who would love this book for Christmas.

I enjoyed the premise and it was a nice book to get stuck into. I think it was informative but also quite funny in the way it delivered it's information.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found the subject matter really interesting. The book was well written and easy to understand. I highly recommend this book.

Very enjoyable book. It reminds me a little of Ian Mortimer's Time Travellers Guide to Medieval England, but covers some different territory. Very readable style, and a short little read. Most people could get through it in a few hours or maybe a day.

Thanks to the publisher for granting my request even though I actually requested this title by accident.

This book was entertaining, however I'm not sure who the target audience is. The reading level is pretty easy and it is a quick fun little read. It seem like it is written for a younger audience but not sure the subject matter will all translate for a younger audience.

Toni Mount's latest work is an enjoyable little book. I love my social history which tries to recreate the day-to-day existence of people who lived in the past. Written in the style of a travel guidebook, this takes in everything from where to eat, Medieval culinary tastes, to medical care, popular literature, fashion, and law.

The style of writing was witty and engaging, and I found myself laughing a couple of times. (A French village which put a - caterpillar on trial. Actually, the accused consisted of a several caterpillars. Yes, caterpillars) without talking down to the reader.

I did disagree with a couple of conclusions (mostly the one about people not drinking water, because I've read differently) but for the most part, even this historian was impressed. Finally, FINALLY an author who doesn’t represent Medieval surgeons as brutal incompetents who killed their patients. Mount even mentions the existence of an opiate based anaesthetic and shows us how professional surgeons were more than capable of treating wounds and injuries. Diseases were trickier, of course. Which is to say the treatments for them often were ineffectual, if not actively harmful.

The illustrations were useful and the "Interviews" with historical figures a novel way of providing actual, historical examples to illustrate the points. Some might take issue with how not all the material is drawn from one particular time period, and there is some "jumping" about. A lot of authors tend to stick to one decade or century, or even a single year of the Medieval period in books like this. Honestly, though, I think the generalized picture worked. One doesn't always need to be specific.

My thanks the publisher, Pen and Sword for approving my request for this title on Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review, or any at all and all opinions expressed are my own.

I found this very interesting reading. Clearly, the author has done a lot of research and I like that the book was divided into different sections according to an aspect of life in Medieval England.

Clearly, if any of us were to time-travel, a lot of adjustments would need to be made! First up, would anyone be able to understand us, as the language was far different to what it is now. What would we do? I don't think being able to type is going to get us far, haha. And then there is the lack of vaccines and all the different diseases to contend with. It is a wonder that enough people survived these times to reproduce and then allow us to be (eventually) born!

I enjoyed this book, it was cleverly done.

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword.

I'm sure we've all seen or heard the question: If you went back in time what item would you take with you? Well my answer is, a copy of this book!
It's full of interesting information including what you would eat, dress and do on a daily basis but it is also brilliantly funny.
There's details about how surnames were formed, the types of jobs available and things you should definitely avoid, from food to certain clothes, unless of course those clothes are correct for your station.

Mount includes interviews with some individuals across all classes that you may come across on your time travelling adventure, which are brilliant for giving further insight into medieval England but also into some of the more well known individuals from the time.

You definitely don't feel like you are reading a nonfiction book due to the interviews and humour but I learnt so much.

So if you are planning a trip back the medieval ages or maybe you are just interested, I would definitely recommend this book. Personally I don't think I would manage living in the medieval ages so I will happily just stick to having read and enjoyed the book.

How to Survive in Medieval England By Toni Mount
Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Pages: 176
Illustrations: Integrated black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781526754417
Published: 25th June 2021

After a long time, I read such a wonderful book about medieval history. Toni Mount presents an enjoyable treat and a guidebook for time-travellers to England during the Medieval period (roughly spanning the 13th-15th centuries). What to wear? Where to eat? Where to stay the night? What currency should you carry? What jobs can you procure? What to do if you fall ill or get robbed on the countryside roads? Where to mend your shoes? Questions like these and much more are explored in this volume.

What makes this book different from the other historical guidebooks is the collection of interviews with historical celebrities and cooks and businesswomen, medieval recipes for a feast, herbal medicines, and a huge repository of etymological facts. For example, when the plague arrived in 1348 and thereby decimating the population across Europe, feudalism took a hit. The "villeins", people who had more freedom than the serfs, started leaving their lords' homes after the great pestilence arrived in search of more lucrative tenancies and higher wages. Since they were breaking the law, the word villeins became "villains", meaning criminals. The author does not overburden the reader with a deluge of dry facts. The book reads more like a personal conversation with a medieval guide taking you on a tour than plain non-fiction. It also has some clever and timeless insights on more serious topics like religion, law and order, death and mortality, class dynamics, and warfare. My favourite bits were food and cooking, medicine, fashion, architecture, and livelihoods.

Fun facts: A baxter is a female baker and a tapster is a female ale-seller. Turns out medieval England had many opportunities for women to work in various business establishments. So it wasn't all dark ages full of plague and grime and oppression.

It's a shame I haven't read other books by Toni Mount and I shall rectify that soon now I have enjoyed the present one. Her website has a wonderful quote which reflects her work and enthusiasm about bringing history alive for readers and students alike.

"Pleasure should mingle with study so that the student may think learning an amusement, rather than a toil"
- Thomas Wolsey (1473-1530)

A decent look at different ways one could live their days - different classes and persons. Nice it is not just one gender or class.

I love to travel and time travel would be amazing, but until they invent that we have great books like this one.
From setting the scene to clothing, food and hospitality you can really imagine you're about to embark on a trip to Medieval England.
Get your shots, brush up on your Latin and grab this book as you step through time.

This was a really engaging read. The author has a lovely whimsical style of writing and the book is full of useful advice if one was ever to find onself In medieval England. I feel that I have a much better insight into the daily life of the people and their habits. I think the book does require a little bit more careful editing and setting out. e.g. Brentwood is used interchangeably with Brentford and , while a great idea, the interviews could be set out more clearly. But notwithstanding this nitpicking, it really is a great book.

How to Survive in Medieval England is a time traveller's guide to making it through the basics of medieval life. Focused on the years between 1066 and 1485 the book covers things like clothing, housing, transportation, and religion.

What this isn't is an in depth guide to the period. It's not a political look at the time. Nor is it a sociological look. It's very clearly intended to be an armchair guide to a medieval newbie who wants to travel back in time to visit an ancestor of six.

The book is well laid out with each section clearly defined. In some places the author imagines interviews with people of the time, interviews which were based on primary sources. The writing style is engaging and easy to read. I zipped through this book in an evening.

Not only would this book be good for a time traveler, but it would also be a good starting point for a fiction author. It gives a lot of the basics of what life is like during the time and it covers the things that most fiction readers want to know: what the people ate, what they wore, and how did they go to the bathroom.

In all this book is a fun, light read that does what it sets out to do.

Five Stars

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley

Seriously charming book.So easy and fun to read and packed full of interesting information.I loved how it was organized and liked how it wasn't a huge time investment.You could just pick it up and put it down without much concentration about what you had read before which happened to be just what I had been looking for in that moment.
A big thank you to Netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It was truly an expansion on everything I learned in 10th grade World History. I absolutely loved the writing style; it felt like having a conversation with a friend.

How to Survive in Medieval England is an all-ages readable look at life (and how not to die) in medieval England written by Toni Mount. Due out 30th Aug 2021 from Pen & Sword, it's 176 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.

The author takes an actively engaging point of view with this daily-life vignette - the reader is a time-traveler heading to medieval England to study and experience life. What should the reader pack? How to prepare? What prophylactic healthcare steps must we do before we leave (vaccines, supplements, oral healthcare, and so on)? She goes on to provide glimpses into daily life and survival across a broad range of social strata, from peasant to lord and shows how they differ from one another.

Chapters are arranged thematically by subject: social structure & housing, religion & beliefs, clothing, food & shopping, health & medicine (some really hair-raising info here), work & leisure, families, warfare and law & order. The book is meticulously annotated and the chapter notes will provide a wealth of sources for further reading. There's also an abbreviated bibliography and cross-referenced index.

The book is modestly illustrated throughout with period illuminated pages showing scenes from domestic life, implements such as eating utensils and tools, and drawings of famous (and unknown) people going about their daily lives.

The fact that the book is layman accessible and engagingly easy to read will make it a very good choice for school or library acquisition. I would recommend it for re-enactors as well (SCA and soforth) as there are a number of good illustrations for copyable tools and eating utensils.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I received a copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review
Toni's books are always a showstopper and this was no exception. Taking a whimsical turn down medieval England lane, I was absorbed and transported back to a time and place unknown. I enjoyed this so much

This was a fun and entertaining look into the Medieval times, often funny sometimes gross but a good read all around!

How to Survive in Medieval England by Toni Mount

With a daughter teaching courses dealing with this time period, I thought it would be interesting to find out more about the era. This book is one that was easy to read, filled with information that was sometimes new and sometimes a reinforcement of knowledge I had already.

The chapters include:
* Introduction to an imaginary trip into a different time
* Social Structure & Housing
* Beliefs & Religious Ideas
* Clothing & Appearance
* Food & Shopping
* Health & Medicine
* Work & Leisure
* Family Matters
* Warfare
* Law & Order

Each chapter has information, illustrations, some warnings, and suggestions and scattered throughout are imaginary conversations with people of interest.

I can see this being use as a resource by teachers and authors, a book to be added to libraries, a possible reading selection for students, and of interest to those just wanting more information. It would not provide an encyclopedia of necessary information to truly survive if one were to find themselves in the past, but it is a good introduction to the time period and left me happy to live now and not back then.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pen & Sword History for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars