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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1828, Shawn ?Skip? Sullivan is somewhere around fourteen years old when the Indians attack his family's homestead and kill both his mother and father. Warned by the barking dogs, Skip's mother forced him to hide in the cabin's false floor. Though Skip is unharmed, his journey is just beginning.

After burying his parents, Skip knows he can't stay at the cabin alone forever. He remembers that there's a small settlement with a trading post about thirty miles away, but he hasn't been there since he was seven years old. With just a small backpack filled with the items the Indians didn't scavenge, Skips sets off for the nearest civilization.

He soon finds himself alone and lost in the mountains?until he meets an old trapper called Big Jim, who teaches him how to survive. Together, the two navigate the wilderness while fending off attackers both human and beast. Skip comes of an age while learning tough lessons about the world and the nature around him.

Growing up in Ohio in the 1860s, brothers Bill and John Cole dream of going west and becoming gunfighters. They have no intention of following in their father's footsteps and working the land, spending their days as farmers. At eighteen, Bill is the first to leave and become a deputy. He cleans up the town of Amber Walls, Texas, and is believed to be the fastest gun of his time. But there's one faster-his brother, John, who rides into Abilene, Kansas, on his bay mare and leaves his mark on this western town as a deputy sheriff. He becomes known as the "left-handed gun." All those who challenge young John Cole end up six feet under in Boot Hill. "The Left-Handed Gun" follows the trials and fortunes of Bill and John Cole as they tackle the challenges of the Old West. They learn that all who take the way of the gun will sooner or later end up on Boot Hill.