Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

Terry Jones' revealing and entertaining account of life in medieval Britain

Jones laces the latest academic research with his own increasingly avuncular humour. Who says history can't be fun? In the hands of Professor Jones, how could it be anything else?

Jones really knows his subject, he is also a passionate apologist for the Middle Ages.... and you also learnt things which made your view of the period a little more complex

Jones is a reliable and accurate guide to his period, mercifully free from the pomposity that afflicts so many telly historians. Three cheers for Terry Jones

Brimming with life, colour, and yes, facts too

Terry Jones is best known as a member of Monty Python but he has also written books on medieval England, Chaucer's Knight, the highly acclaimed Who Murdered Chaucer? and Crusades, as well as Terry Jones' Barbarians, which accompanied a major television series he presented in 2006. He is the author of several children's books including Fairy Tales and Fantastic Stories, The Knight and the Squire and The Lady and the Squire. He has directed several feature films: Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, Personal Services, Erik the Viking and The Wind in the Willows. 
 
Alan Ereira has worked as an award-winning producer and writer of history programmes on radio and television for over 40 years, and has collaborated with Terry for ten years on a number of historical films. His previous books include The People's England, The Invergordon Mutiny, The Heart of the World and (with Terry Jones) Crusades and Terry Jones' Barbarians.

Was medieval England full of knights on horseback rescuing fainting damsels in distress? Were the Middle Ages mired in superstition and ignorance? Why does nobody ever mention King Louis the First and Last? And, of course, those key questions: which monks were forbidden the delights of donning underpants... and did outlaws never wear trousers? 
 
Terry Jones and Alan Ereira are your guides to this most misrepresented and misunderstood period, and they point you to things that will surprise and provoke. Did you know, for example, that medieval people didn't think the world was flat? That was a total fabrication by an American journalist in the 19th century. Did you know that they didn't burn witches in the Middle Ages? That was a refinement of the so-called Renaissance. In fact, medieval kings weren't necessarily merciless tyrants, and peasants entertained at home using French pottery and fine wine. 
 
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives reveals Medieval Britain as you have never seen it before - a vibrant society teeming with individuality, intrigue and innovation.

Alan Ereira

Terry Jones

I have enormously enjoyed this book - it is very lively and really does get to grips with perceptions of the Barbarians. It's just what we need to readdress the balance and to put the Romans in their correct perspective.

Barry Cunliffe, Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford

Jones laces the latest academic research with his own increasingly avuncular humour. Who says history can't be fun? In the hands of Professor Jones, how could it be anything else?

I wish all historical books written by non-historians were so informed, and all books by historians so well written.

Dr Walter Pohl, Head of the Institute for Medieval History Research, Vienna Academy of Sciences

Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of those written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. 
 
This original and fascinating study does away with the propaganda and opens our eyes to who really established the civilized world. Delving deep into history, Terry Jones and Alan Ereira uncover the impressive cultural and technological achievements of the Celts, Goths, Persians and Vandals. 
 
In this paperback edition, Terry and Alan travel through 700 years of history on three continents, bringing wit, irreverence, passion and scholarship to transform our view of the legacy of the Roman Empire and the creation of the modern world.

Alan Ereira

Praise for Terry Jones' Barbarians

I have enormously enjoyed this book - it is very lively and really does get to grips with perceptions of the Barbarians. It's just what we need to readdress the balance and to put the Romans in their correct perspec ...

Jones laces the latest academic research with his own increasingly avuncular humour. Who says history can't be fun? In the hands of Professor Jones, how could it be anything else?

I wish all historical books written by non-historians were so informed, and all books by historians so well written.

I have enormously enjoyed this book - it is very lively and really does get to grips with perceptions of the Barbarians. It's just what we need to readdress the balance and to put the Romans in their correct perspec ...

Jones laces the latest academic research with his own increasingly avuncular humour. Who says history can't be fun? In the hands of Professor Jones, how could it be anything else?

I wish all historical books written by non-historians were so informed, and all books by historians so well written.

I have enormously enjoyed this book - it is very lively and really does get to grips with perceptions of the Barbarians. It's just what we need to readdress the balance and to put the Romans in their correct perspec ...

Jones laces the latest academic research with his own increasingly avuncular humour. Who says history can't be fun? In the hands of Professor Jones, how could it be anything else?

I wish all historical books written by non-historians were so informed, and all books by historians so well written.

Books by Alan Ereira

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