"The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to The Seventeenth Century 1660-1700" by Ian Mortimer

Publisher: Pegasus Books

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781681773544

The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain is a fascinating look into what life was like in the mid to late 17th century in Britain (in particular 1660 to 1700). This was a time that has been portrayed in a number of movies, and books, but there were many details that the film makers got wrong. Whether this was due to lack of research, or they just didn't think anybody would notice is questionable, but Mr. Mortimer's book should hopefully eliminate any future errors, assuming that the movie types bother to read it.

This book is Mr. Mortimer's 8th dealing with history, which is where his expertise is as he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has been described by the London Times as "the most remarkable medieval history of out time." He has two other books in the Time-traveller's series one on Medieval England, and another of Elizabethan England, both of which are fascinating as well.

"Restoration Britain" delves deeply into a wide range of topics such as living in London, as well as outside it ad the differences can be quite startling to say the least. He also discusses the people themselves, their character, the basic essentials of life, the colette they wore, travelling, where it is possible to stay when travelling, what you as a traveller could eat, drink and smoke, the health and hygiene of the peoples, the law, and entertainment.

This book as well as the two others in the series would be priceless resources for any author writing historical fiction set in Britain in any one of the three eras. I hope Mr. Mortimer will consider expanding this series with other books as well.

Highly recommended.

"Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas" by Laura Sook Duncombe

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9781613736012

This is an fascinating book filled with great information on the women who were or at the very least contributed to piracy throughout history. The vast majority of works about piracy never mention but a few women, when it seems rather obvious (at least to me) that there must have been a significant number of them. Unfortunately due to the patriarchy most women have been pushed to the side and therefore written out of history. Even more unfortunately is that this is a common occurrence in virtually all aspects of historical writing, unless of course the author is 1) a woman, or 2) cares about representing history truthfully.

I 'met' for the first time in this book many women pirates whom I'd never heard of before. Most people have I'm sure heard of Anne Bonny, and Mary Reed. But the adventures of women pirates started many centuries before these two ladies came on the scene.

Other notable women pirates included in this volume come from many ages throughout history. Some were forced into piracy due to their circumstances, other chose the life for themselves. Some of the women pirates are fictional, but others were real. Some only aided the pirates in their lifestyle while others were actually crew members. The majority of the ones who were actual crew members dressed as men, in some circumstances this was for disguise, while in a number of cases I'm relatively sure it was for practicality.

This was a very well researched and informative book. As for as I can tell Ms. Duncombe hasn't written any others to date but I would watch out for anything she produces in the future.

Highly recommended.

"The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century" by Ian Mortimer

Publisher:New York : Touchstone, 2010.
Edition:First Touchstone hardcover edition.
Copyright Date:©2008
ISBN:9781439112892

This book not only has a long title, but it is filled with fascinating information, and would truly act as a handbook for visitors just like its subtitle states.

Without a doubt living in the fourteenth century would be very difficult for someone from our century, in fact it is likely it would be close to impossible due to all the differences that we would have to adapt to, not to mention survive.

As Mr. Mortimer asks in his introduction: "What does the word 'medieval' conjure up in your mind? Knights and castles? Monk and abbeys? Hug tracts of forest in which outlaws live in defiance of the the law?"

If we are to believe many fiction books written about the fourteenth century then this might be quite true, however this is the Hollywood version of history. In reality life was a lot different and Mr. Mortimer goes into fantastic detail with regard to what life was actually like by giving examples of such things as: the landscape (what it really looked like), and the people (how did they live). He goes on to talk about what people wore, how they travelled, stayed while travelling, what they ate, their health, the law, etc.

This book would be an essential resource for any writer who is interested in bringing some reality to their stories, or any scholar who needs research material that is handily condensed into one volume.

The book has extensive notes, and an eight page bibliography.

I'm looking forward to reading his other works in the future: "The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England" & "The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: A handbook for Visitors to the Seventeenth Century, 1660-1700".

"Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate" by Angus Konstam

Publisher: Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Year: 2006
ISBN: 9780471758853


This book was an amazing read that is very well researched and written. I first heard of the author Angus Konstam when I watched a documentary called "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Real Story" which compared the Disney movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" to the facts. and Mr. Konstam was one of the people interviewed.

The book details the life of Edward Teach a.k.a. Blackbeard from his younger days in Bristol, England (as far as can be determined) to his death. It was interesting to read about all his various exploits and how they reinforced the public's impression of him during his short career.

The book goes into a fair bit of detail about the political situation in the American colonies at this time, which I found somewhat unimportant to the story, but this is undoubtedly because I don't really know any American history and therefore have nothing to relate it to. Looking back however (after doing a bit of research) I found that it was very important as the rivalries between the various colonies were both an opportunity that Blackbeard took advantage of, as well as the reason that he was eventually hunted down.

A great book, that I would recommend to all history buffs, and especially those who are fascinated by pirates, and life in general in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.