The Year 1000: An Englishman's Year [Paperback]

Thoroughly enjoyable ... a superb insight into life as it was lived a thousand years ago (INDEPENDENT )

A brilliant little book, well-written, knowledgeable, insightful, accessible, a model of how popular social history should be written (GLASGOW HERALD )

A series of deftly-turned vignettes of what it was like to live in England at the turn of the last millennium ... a quirky and engaging book (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

A beautiful window on past history. My book of the year (Simon Schama )

'A brilliant little book, wellwritten, knowledgeable, insightful, accessible, a model of how popular social history should be written' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

* Vivid recreation of how English people lived a thousand years ago. * What life was like at the turn of the first Millennium.

THE YEAR 1000 is a vivid evocation of how English people lived a thousand years ago - no spinach, sugar or Caesarean operations in which the mother had any chance of survival, but a world that knew brain surgeons, property developers and, yes, even the occasional gossip columnist. In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the leading historians and archaeologists in their field. In the year 1000 the changing seasons shaped a life that was, by our standards, both soothingly quiet and frighteningly hazardous - and if you survived, you could expect to grow to just about the same height and stature as anyone living today. This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom, with prophets of doom invoking the spectre of the Anti-Christ. Here comes the abacus - the medieval calculating machine - along with bewildering new concepts like infinity and zero. These are portents of the future, and THE YEAR 1000 finishes by examining the human and social ingredients that were to make for survival and success in the next thousand years.

What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium

'The Year 1000 'is a vivid and surprising portrait of life in England a thousand years ago – no spinach, no sugar, but a world which already knew brain surgeons and property developers, and yes, even the occasional gossip columnist.

Uncovering such wonderfully unexpected details, authors Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger bring this distant world closer than it has ever been before. How did monks communicate if they were not allowed to speak? What punishments could the law impose without stone and iron prisons in which to lock up offenders? Why was July called “the hungry month”? 'The Year 1000 ' answers these questions, and reveals such secrets as the recipe for a medieval form of Viagra and an hallucinogenic treat called “crazy bread”.

In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the top historians and archaeologists in the field. Their research led them to an ancient and little-known document of the period, the Julius Work Calendar, a sharply observed guide which takes us back in time to a charming and very human world of kings and revellers, saints and slave-labourers, lingering paganism and profound Christian faith.

This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom. While prophets of doom predict the end of the world, AD 1000 sees the arrival of such bewildering concepts as infinity and zero, along with the abacus – the medieval calculating machine. These are portents of the future, and 'The Year 1000' finishes by examining the human and social ingredients that were to make for success and achievement in the next thousand years.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Robert Lacey is an internationally renowned historian and biographer. Danny Danziger is a journalist and interviewer for THE INDEPENDENT and SUNDAY TIMES magazine. He is co-founder, along with Lacey, of COVER magazine.