Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

  • By: Ian Mortimer
  • Narrated by: Mike Grady
  • Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (934 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England cover art

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Mike Grady
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England cover art
Medieval Woman cover art
The Middle Ages cover art
Victorian London cover art
How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England cover art
Ancestors cover art
The Adventure of English cover art
The Greater Journey cover art
Medieval People cover art
Elizabeth's London cover art
A Distant Mirror cover art
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World cover art
Restoration London cover art
The Time Machine cover art
Dr. Johnson's London cover art
Salt cover art

Summary

What was it actually like to live in Elizabethan England? If you could travel to the past and walk the streets of London in the 1590s, where would you stay? What would you eat? What would you wear? Would you really have a sense of it being a glorious age? And if so, how would that glory sit alongside the vagrants, diseases, violence, sexism and famine of the time? In this book Ian Mortimer answers the key questions that a visitor to late 16th-century England would ask.

©2012 Ian Mortimer (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd

What listeners say about The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    584
  • 4 Stars
    240
  • 3 Stars
    86
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    11
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    522
  • 4 Stars
    156
  • 3 Stars
    45
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    482
  • 4 Stars
    172
  • 3 Stars
    60
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Almost but not quite

I read the earlier Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England in good old fashioned paperback and enjoyed it . So it was an easy choice to pick this on the track record of the earlier book. I wish I'd stuck to paperback again.TTG to Elizabethan England is not a bad book, however it doesn't work as an audiobook as well as many other books. The narration is fine and clear but the book suffers from too many facts and figures, lists and statistics. In print these work, but as the spoken word they serve to bog down the book and break up flow and imagination. A pity . Perhaps this is a (to my preference) rare example of a book that would honestly be improved for audio by being abridged.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

86 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What it was like to live in the 16th Century

The Tudor period has spawned many historical books, TV programmes and films, but these tend to focus on the monarchy and the major historical events, and give a rather air-brushed view of the period, whereas this author delves into how most people lived in contrast to the rich and powerful. He draws the listener into the streets of 16th century and describes the the bustle of people at work, the buildings, smells, and sounds. He has done an immense amount of research using private papers and other documents to glean the minutia of day-to day living, such as how people cleaned their teeth, bodies, clothes, and got rid of bodily waste. What they wore, ate and drank; how they travelled and earned money. What afflictions they suffered from and what medical treatments were available. The author’s other two time travellers guides (about the 14th and 16th centuries) have similar details and it’s interesting to learn what had changed and what had not.

Altogether a fascinating insight into the period that I greatly enjoyed. The text is well-suited to being spoken and is done admirably by the narrator.

At the end of the recording there’s an interview with the author in which he describes his philosophy of making history relevant to a modern audience and make us realise that people of the past were in many ways very similar to us.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

brilliant - Just close your eyes and you are there

I dont' know how you start to write a book like this, I guess you have to have an excellent knowlage of the period, and a gift that allows you to put the reader there, as if you had traveled back as a time travel tourist and had to get a grip on the siutuation you find youslef in. I particually love the way Ian Mortimer somtimes comes at a particular point from an odd angle that makes you wonder where he is going. There is just enough detail to satisfy the novice, not too much that any particular subject can become boring. This is very well read, easy to take in, sometimes a bit upseting, sometimes supprising. I also like the interview with the author at the end. If you like history in an easy to take in format, that makes it relevent, then you will enjoy this. Probaly should be 5 stars, but ill leave that for your next one Ian.....please...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

I down loaded this copy some months ago and listen to it as I trundled back and forth through the next few weeks. It really was very good.

I then recently began to listen to it once more. I found so much more this time round. I rarely like revisiting books but this is wonderful.

I recommend this book to everyone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

elizabethan wonderland

I loved this book. Although factual and historical it is thoroughly intriguing and I felt as if I knew some of the 'characters'. Superby written and narrated. Was ideal for listening to in stages as its well defined into specific areas such as food or politics or living conditions. These areas were also seemlessly interlinked. For me, perfection.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Time travelling to Elizabethan England

I enjoyed very much listening to the descriptions of England in the 16th. century and I will highly recommend this book to people who like history and furthermore have the imagination to "see" landscapes, towns, people and much more so extremely well described by Ian Mortimer and so excellently narrated by Mike Grady.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

If you liked the medieval guide, you'll love this

It's a great idea; immersive history delivered through a view of how life really was in a particular period of history. He did it incredibly well in the medieval time travellers guide. This holds up just as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engages the senses & imagination

If you could sum up The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England in three words, what would they be?

Smelly, frightening, exciting!

What other book might you compare The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England to, and why?

Mary Beard SPQR has a harder job with less contemporary written accounts or artefacts to guide the listener through daily life, so is less compelling than Mortimer's work.

Have you listened to any of Mike Grady’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The smells, and the description of roads and travelling, made me very grateful to live in the age I do, and slightly envious of what the future may hold.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Informative and enlightening

I enjoyed this volume, but not quite as much as I did the "Time Traveller's Guide To Medieval England". There is plenty of illustrative detail about how our ancestors went about their lives, and the facts are delivered in a pleasantly chatty style, but the emphasis towards the end of the book on literary developments felt rather like it came from a different book. But I much preferred the narrator who recorded this book to that for the Medieval England. Well-worth downloading and listening to, I'm sure there's something interesting in here for everyone.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The past comes to life.

This is a great book for people who have an interest in history - particularly of our great nation. Mike Grady has just the right voice for it - not to clipped or overly 'posh'. He brings the lines on the dusty pages to life in a vibrant manner. The intermingling of words written by those who were there at the time with the modern lines of Ian Mortimer create a whole new world for us - from the distant past!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful