Monty Python member and award-winning TV producer team up to release refreshing history book to accompany the BBC TV series.
Terry Jones is well-known as the director of several films including The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. He is also known for a number of children's books including The Lady and the Squire, as well as two books on medieval England: Who Murdered Chaucer? and Chaucer's Knight.
Alan Ereira is renowned as an award-winning producer of several history programmes for radio and television as well as books including Crusades and The Heart of the World (with Terry Jones).
Written to accompany the BBC television series with the same title this recent Jones/Ereira collaboration will appeal to both adults and older children seeking an entry point to medieval history. It's a lively representation of medieval life, engaging, readable and frequently humorous although that humour does not undermine the importance of its content.
The book comprises nine sections: the introduction plus eight chapters each based on a specific character: the peasant, minstrel, outlaw and monk, the philosopher, knight, damsel and king. The writers start from a basic premise. They say: "We would like to re-adjust the spectacles through which we view the medieval world". They also say: "Medieval people, we are invited to suppose, lived out their lives in a kind of fairy tale, unaware of science or real learning, under the tyrannical rule of feudal overlords."
Challenging the long-accepted picture of medieval England
In each chapter the authors ask questions that challenge the long-accepted picture of medieval England. They explore examples from history to break down these established medieval archetypes and in answering their own questions they explode some of the myths and legends that we've mistakenly clung to for so long.
The Peasant
Take the peasant for example. When I was at school history teachers portrayed the peasant as an uneducated thug, good only for heavy manual labour in the fields. Our authors present the peasant as a well-fed intelligent person often with an expert knowledge of the law. The peasant was well-organised and, indeed, well-armed as was evident in the summer of 1381 – the so called 'Peasants' Revolt' when an army, tens of thousands strong marched on London from Kent and Essex.
Medieval Women
As for the medieval woman we discover that the married woman was an astute business woman who was sometimes called upon to defend her lands during her husband's frequent long absences. She ran her household with precision and vigour. She was certainly not the compliant delicate female that I remembered from my school days. For the woman who spurned betrothal life was somewhat different and Jones makes good use of subtle humour when he relates the story of Christina of Markyate in Damsel. Christina refused marriage and sought refuse with a number of hermits eventually becoming a renowned holy woman at St. Albans Abbey, earning her keep by embroidering underwear for the abbot and slippers for the pope. Jones says women "had to be tough-minded and look out for themselves" – so what's changed?
Each chapter is illustrated with a cartoon appropriate to each character together with photographs, extracts from manuscripts, and maps.
This is not your usual dry history book written in accordance with a chronological plan. It's a good book for older children. For adults, who might then want to follow through with more detailed medieval exploration, the bibliography provides just the information you might need.
Published by BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd (2004) Hardback, pp.256, £18.99 ISBN: 0-563-48793-3
