The time traveller's guide to medieval England

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Ffiona Swabey

"This study provides an important addition to current work on women in late medieval England. Its starting point is evidence from the life of one particular woman, Alice de Bryene, a Suffolk heiress of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. As a widow and owner of several large estates, she appears to have enjoyed greater status, influence and independence than most married women of the period."--BOOK JACKET. "Through an examination of Alice's "Household Book," and using other extant contemporary sources, the author has been able to illuminate the experiences of medieval women in general. The resulting work provides a vivid picture of life in the medieval household, examining marriage and widowhood, daily household and estate management, hospitality and entertainment, education, patronage, religious concerns and the private and public roles of medieval women of the estate-owning class."--BOOK JACKET.

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Clare Hibbert

Uncover the fascinating story of what happened in prehistoric Britain over 900,000 years ago, when the first humans arrived. Discover how people began to work metal, explore the mysteries of tombs and learn about everyday life in early Britain.

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Lesley Pearse

Somerset, 1836, and baby Hope is cast out from a world of privilege as living proof of her mother's adultery? Smuggled away from the Harveys and Briargate House to a nearby village, Hope grows up in the arms of the warm and loving Renton family, unaware of her true identity. But fate has harsh plans for Hope and a chain of events sees her forced to lead a vagabond's existence until she finds the courage to fight back and prove herself a fearless and able nurse, a vocation that takes her to the horrific battlefields of the Crimea. But the secrets of the past are not yet done with Hope Renton and she must return to England to face the legacy of her birth?

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John Malam

The year is 1842, and you have been taken from your mother in London to work in a cotton mill in smoky Manchester. The work is hard and dangerous: you are likely to go deaf and suffer from lung disease, and you could easily lose limbs. Is there no hope for you? Will things ever get better?