2007-11-25 A significant insight into life in Medieval England.

Professor Dyer introduces his own book with the words: "This book is about the lives of ordinary medieval people. It deals with their material conditions, their social relationships, and their ideas. But its theme is also change and development over the medieval period ..."

It covers most aspects of ordinary life of the time and in doing so helps to dispel the frequent association in many peoples minds between the word medieval and a very poor quality of life. Life was often very difficult, but rather more often, more sophisticated and analogous to our own times than many of our contemporaries believe.

The book discusses the various aspects of medieval life on a topic by chapter basis which progresses from chapter 1: Power and Conflict in the Medieval English Village, via chapter 5: Changes in Diet in the Late Middle Ages, to chapter 14: The Hidden Trade of the Middle Ages ... to give just a sample of the broad ranging descriptions.

The Black Death is described as a great catalyst for change, but it was not an initiator of trends. Thus, "the rise of fresh meat to become the most important non-cereal food" was accelerated by the Black Death rather than instigated by it.

From records of building agreements, 'West Midlands Peasant Buildings, 1350 - 1500' are described in chapter 8 as: "84 per cent of the 113 Worcestershire buildings whose sizes were recorded, were either of three bays, ... (c. 4.6m x 13.8m), of of two bays, ... (c. 4.6m x 9.2 m), with three bays in a majority"; and the animals were usually separately housed. The one room flimsy shack was not by these accounts the habitat of the day.

On a somewhat topical note, the only aspect of life of these times that I rather missed, was a description of the weather conditions of the time and if this had any effect on changes in agriculture practice, particularly before the arrival of the Black Death.

The book is academic in tone, but is written in a manner that will also delight the interested non specialist.