Ian Mortimer - Through the Windows of an Ordinary House: A History of England

About

The Bookery is delighted to welcome bestselling historian Dr Ian Mortimer for an evening celebrating the publication of his remarkable new book Through the Windows of an Ordinary House: A History of England . Ian will be joined in conversation by Catherine Courtenay, Editor of Devon Life magazine.

Set in Mearsdon, the house where Mortimer lives in Moretonhampstead on the edge of Dartmoor, this fascinating new book offers a strikingly original way of seeing Englands past. Drawing on documentary records of the owners who lived there since the 1260s, and on a site whose origins may reach back to the eleventh century, Mortimer blends the broad sweep of national history with the intimate detail of local lives and changing daily experience
From the Norman Conquest to the present day, Through the Windows of an Ordinary House: A History of England introduces the people who passed through this Devon house across nine centuries, showing how great national events from the Black Death and the Prayerbook Rebellion to the Civil Wars and the two world wars shaped a rural community in deepest Devon. Rich in character, atmosphere and insight, it is social history on an unusually human scale, revealing the changing world through the eyes of those who lived within it.

Dr Ian Mortimer is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Time Travellers Guides to Medieval England, Elizabethan England, Restoration Britain and Regency Britain, as well as four celebrated medieval biographies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1998.
Catherine Courtenay is a Devon-born journalist and Editor of Devon Life magazine, whose career spans regional newspapers, reporting and features, covering subjects from community events to major issues, including reporting linked to the war in Afghanistan, before moving into magazine editorship in editorial leadership roles. Catherine lives near Umberleigh in the north of the county with her husband and their funny dog, Ralf.

This event forms part of The Bookerys programme of author talks and cultural events and reflects the bookshops proud support for the National Year of Reading. The evening will include audience questions, followed by a book signing.

Ticketholders will receive 10% off purchases of Through the Windows of an Ordinary House on the evening.