Toni Mount – författare

Conjuring up a time when butchers and executioners knew more about anatomy than university-trained physicians, the phrase ‘medieval medicine’ sounds horrific to those of us with modern ideas on hygiene, instant pain relief and effective treatments. In those days no one could allay the dread of plague or the many other horrible diseases we have now forgotten. However, the medieval medical profession provided patients with everything from cosmetic procedures and dietary advice to life-saving surgeries and post-operative antibiotics. Intriguingly, alongside such expertise, some still believed that unicorns, dragons and elephants supplied vital medical ingredients and that horoscopes could predict the sex of unborn babies.This book explores the labyrinth of strange ideas and unlikely remedies that make up the weird, wonderful and occasionally beneficial world of medieval medicine.

This guide, How to Survive in Ration-Book Britain, will help the time-traveller who journeys back to mid-twentieth century Britain. From 1939 to 1945, the country is involved in World War Two and even after victory is achieved, Britain is cash-strapped and years of austerity follow. Throughout, food, clothing, fuel, furniture and items we take for granted today are rationed and people are scrimping, scraping and using their imagination just to get by.As cities and towns are bombed, lives lost and homes destroyed, men are called to serve the country, children are evacuated and women are expected to ‘do their bit’ on the ‘Home Front’, maintaining the house as a place of welcome, boosting morale and stretching meagre food allowances to keep everyone fed and fit. This is no easy life yet people find lighter moments and ‘carry on carrying on’. Whatever the disaster, somebody will find a way to make tea. The English ‘cuppa’ is the answer to almost every problem. You have to admire their spirit.Enjoy the experience as this book helps you to survive the hazards and live life to the full in Ration-Book Britain.

Imagine you were transported back in time to Tudor England and had to start a new life there, without smartphones, internet or social media. When transport means walking or, if you’re lucky, horseback, how will you know where you are or where to go? Where will you live and where will you work? What will you eat and what shall you wear? And who can you turn to if you fall ill or are mugged in the street, or God forbid if you upset the king? In a period when execution by beheading was the fate of thousands how can you keep your head in Tudor England?All these questions and many more are answered in this new guidebook for time-travellers: How to Survive in Tudor England. A handy self-help guide with tips and suggestions to make your visit to the 16th century much more fun, this lively and engaging book will help the reader deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur.Enjoy interviews with the celebrities of the day, and learn some new words to set the mood for your time-travelling adventure. Have an exciting visit but be sure to keep this book to hand.

THIS BOOK COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE! If you are planning to travel back to the England of Anglo-Saxon times and begin a new life without technology, how will you manage? If you were a king, a thegn or even a slave, what rights do you have under the law? Are women treated well by their husbands, and if you become sick, what are your chances of recovery? How might you earn your living, and the biggest worry: what to do about those fearsome Vikings?All these questions and more are answered in this self-help guide for time-travellers. It explores the difficulties you may encounter and the problems that might occur, especially as you are a newcomer in this very different world. Fear not: keep this little volume by you; it will help you find your place in society, learn the language and make friends.You will also meet some of the celebrities of the day, from Alfred the Great to the Venerable Bede, and more humble folk such as Tatberht of Lundenwic and Ardith the local baxter. Learn how to make bread and tell a great story; enjoy the mead, and the beauties of Anglo-Saxon art and jewellery. And if you do find yourself involved in a Viking attack, at least you will know your assailants are well groomed - and afterwards, both sides know how to have a great time in the mead-hall. So join in, but keep this book handy, just in case.

Have you ever wondered what life was like for the ordinary housewife in the Middle Ages? Or how much power a medieval lady really had? Find out all about medieval housewives, peasant women, grand ladies, women in trade and women in the church in this fascinating book.More has been written about medieval women in the last twenty years than in the two whole centuries before that. Female authors of the medieval period have been rediscovered and translated; queens are no longer thought of as merely decorative brood mares for their royal husbands and have merited their own biographies. In the past, historians have tended to look at what women could not do. In this book we will look at the lives of medieval women in a more positive light, finding out what rights and opportunities they enjoyed and attempting to uncover the real women beneath the layers of dust accumulated over the centuries.

Our capital city has always been a thriving and colourful place, full of diverse and determined individuals developing trade and finance, exchanging gossip and doing business.Abandoned by the Romans, rebuilt by the Saxons, occupied by the Vikings and reconstructed by the Normans, London would become the largest trade and financial centre, dominating the world in later centuries. London has always been a brilliant, vibrant and eclectic place – Henry V was given a triumphal procession there after his return from Agincourt and the Lord Mayor’s river pageant was an annual medieval spectacular. William the Conqueror built the Tower, Thomas Becket was born in Cheapside, Wat Tyler led the peasants in revolt across London Bridge and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was the first book produced on Caxton’s new printing press in Westminster.But beneath the colour and pageantry lay dirt, discomfort and disease, the daily grind for ordinary folk. Like us, they had family problems, work worries, health concerns and wondered about the weather.

Isaac Newton and the England he knew: the people, places and events that shaped history’s greatest scientist.Across nine decades, Isaac Newton bestrode the world of science, becoming a colossus of experimentation, discovery and philosophy. How did a seventeenth-century Lincolnshire farm-boy become one of the most influential scientists of all time, his work still relevant to us today and for our future?This fascinating new biography explores not only Newton’s world and his times but the earlier ideas that were the foundation for his breakthroughs in science and those people around him who influenced his work. His later career at the Royal Mint and his heretical views on religion are considered as extensions of his philosophy. Newton’s ideas underpinned the Enlightenment that gave birth to the modern world of science and material progress. From school mathematics to space exploration, from laser surgical techniques to artificial intelligence, Newton is here in our everyday lives: the man who changed the world.

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.

Imagine you were transported back in time to Medieval England and had to start a new life there. Without mobile phones, ipads, internet and social media networks, when transport means walking or, if you're fortunate, horse-back, how will you know where you are or what to do? Where will you live? What is there to eat? What shall you wear? How can you communicate when nobody speaks as you do and what about money? Who can you go to if you fall ill or are mugged in the street? However can you fit into and thrive in this strange environment full of odd people who seem so different from you?All these questions and many more are answered in this new guide book for time-travellers: _How to Survive in Medieval England_. A handy self-help guide with tips and suggestions to make your visit to the Middle Ages much more fun, this lively and engaging book will help the reader deal with the new experiences they may encounter and the problems that might occur. Know the laws so you don't get into trouble or show your ignorance in an embarrassing faux pas.Enjoy interviews with the celebrities of the day, from a business woman and a condemned felon, to a royal cook and King Richard III himself. Have a go at preparing medieval dishes and learn some new words to set the mood for your time-travelling adventure. Have an exciting visit but be sure to keep this book to hand.