The Time Traveler’s Guide to Restoration Britain

A Handbook for Visitors to the Seventeenth Century: 1660-1699

By: Ian Mortimer

Narrated by: Roger Clark

Imagine you could see the smiles of the people mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary, hear the shouts of market traders, and touch their wares. How would you find your way around? Where would you stay? What would you wear? Where might you be suspected of witchcraft? Where would you be welcome?

This is an up-close-and-personal look at Britain between the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 and the end of the century. The last witch is sentenced to death just two years before Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, the bedrock of modern science, is published. Religion still has a severe grip on society and yet some - including the king - flout every moral convention they can find. There are great fires in London and Edinburgh; the plague disappears; a global trading empire develops.

Over these four dynamic decades, the last vestiges of medievalism are swept away and replaced by a tremendous cultural flowering. Why are half the people you meet under the age of 21? What is considered rude? And why is dueling so popular? Ian Mortimer delves into the nuances of daily life to paint a vibrant and detailed picture of society at the dawn of the modern world as only he can.

©2017 Ian Mortimer (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Social historian Mortimer is on to a good thing. His previous, similarly structured books, The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England, charmed readers, and this latest will do the same." ( Kirkus)

Really excellent

Recommend d to all those interested in the history of daily life in the past.

One of the best!

One of the best historical books that dives into daily life. You too will fall in love with Celia Fines and laugh with and at Samuel Pypes.

Good book, terrible narrator

I enjoy this series from Mortimer and have learned a lot but this narrator is just not good. I wish there were a better narrator to make the listening experience far more enjoyable.

A delightful and submersible book!

One of THE best written and performed books I've come across. Extensive research on the human condition with a flowing narration makes this book so engaging.

Well narrated; Thorough study

I liked the way the book presents the author’s exhaustive study of this period of English history and literature. Author does have long lists of things but it adds color to the time period. I recommend.

Love the 'traveler" books

I've read 3 or 4 of these books and thoroughly enjoy the peek unto the way people lived in that time. .. the nsrrator is excellent.

Wonderful

Easy to follow along, the narrator was easy to listen to. I enjoyed the organization of the book and felt it covered all the different aspects, including the psychology, sociology, beliefs, and day-to-day practices, such as cooking, hygiene, and clothing. Thoroughly enjoyed.

Really enjoyed

This was the first in this series I’ve listened to and I really enjoyed it. Excellent narration, well written, thorough, and covers all aspects of living in the time period. Plenty of research went into recreating every day life here! I’ll definitely look into the rest of the series.

INFORMATIVE

I love history, thus I thoroughly enjoyed this book. So much information. The author did an excellent job. You get a good idea of how the people lived during that time. There are some humorous parts and some really dry parts. Day to day life for the common man was not easy. It makes me question who ever came up with the phrase “remember the good old days”. I do recommend this book. The narrator did an excellent job. My thanks to all involved for making this book available, JK

A human heart revealed

I was put off at first by a plethora of statistics which I was afraid were going to comprise the entire book. I would suggest jumping ahead and skipping them to those not pleased by such things. Once what I would call the body of the book is reached it opens up into a picture reveals in patchwork of the various parts of the lives of people. I started by feeling they were alien to mine and indeed somewhat frightening due to the preconceived alien ness I felt. But what was slowly revealed were breathing people living lives. Laughing dying being born loving but above all living human lives. By the end of the book I felt the patchwork had resolved into a finely woven picture of life in the mid to late 17nth century. I met some old friends along the way specifically Samuel Pepys who’s diaries had engrossed me some years ago and another often quoted diarist who’s aquaintance I mean soon to make. This book allowed me to see yellow humans on a timeline not really very different from my own. In its hopes aspirations and follies. Their stories I think will travel with me for some time to come.