Ian James Forrester Mortimer (born 1967) is a British historian and writer of historical fiction. He is best known for his book '' The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'', which became a ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' bestseller in paperback in 2010.

Early life and education

Ian James Forrester Mortimer was born in 1967, in Petts Wood, and was educated at

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition, for boarding school, boarding and Day school, day pupils aged 13–18, in ...

, the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

(BA, PhD, DLitt) and

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

(MA). He has BA, MA and PhD degrees in history.

Career

Between 1993 and 2003, he worked for several major research institutions, including the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, the

, and the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...

. From 2000-2003, he was the University of Exeter's first professional archivist. His first publications were poems, published in various literary magazines. In 2000, his work "31 December 1999" was awarded the University of Exeter's prize for a "poem for the Millennium", open to all present and past students of the university, and judged by the then poet laureate, Andrew Motion. Since 2001, he has been a self-employed writer. From 2003 to 2009, he published a sequence of biographies of medieval political leaders: first Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, then

Edward III Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring royal authority after t ...

, and Henry IV, in addition to ''1415'', a year in the life of Henry V. Mortimer's best-known book is ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'', first published in the United Kingdom in 2008. It was followed by ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England'' (which became a BBC TV series, presented by the author), ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain'' and ''The Time Travellers Guide to Regency Britain.'' He is also well known for pioneering, in his first two books and an article in '' The English Historical Review'', the argument (based on evidence such as the Fieschi Letter) that Edward II did not die in Berkeley Castle in 1327. Mortimer has also carried out research into the

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

of early modern medicine. His essay "The Triumph of the Doctors" was awarded the 2004 Alexander Prize by the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

. In this essay he demonstrated that ill and injured people close to death shifted their hopes of physical salvation from an exclusively religious source of healing power (God, or Jesus

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

) to a predominantly human one (physicians and surgeons) over the period 1615–1670, and argued that this shift of outlook was among the most profound changes

western society Western culture, also known as Western civilization, European civilization, Occidental culture, Western society, or simply the West, refers to the Cultural heritage, internally diverse culture of the Western world. The term "Western" encompas ...

has ever experienced. In 2011, Mortimer entered the genre of historical fiction, publishing the first book from his

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female ...

''Clarenceux Trilogy'' using the pen name of James Forrester. James Forrester are Mortimer's middle names. His fourth novel, ''The Outcasts of Time'', was published under his ordinary name: it won the 2018 Winston Graham Prize for Historical Fiction.

Other roles

In 2003, he was appointed by the Secretary of State Member of Dartmoor National Park Authority, representing the parishes. In 2009, he was reappointed as a Member by the Secretary of State, this time representing the national interest – a role which he continued to perform until 2017. Other public appointments have included the Lord Chancellor's Forum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research, 2011–17 (subsequently known as the Forum on Archives and Academic Research) and the Fabric Advisory Committee of

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The presen ...

, 2011–16.

Criticism of Wikipedia

In a 2010 essay by Mortimer, he criticised Wikipedia's spurning of primary sources, and its apparent inability to publish the latest research done by experts in a field, citing his involvement with editing the birth date of Henry V as an example. He wrote that Wikipedia "elevates discarded and outdated opinion to the same level or even above that of well-evidenced knowledge". In a short piece written in 2012, he was again highly critical of Wikipedia and

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known as Jimbo Wales, is an American List of Internet entrepreneurs, Internet entrepreneur and former Trader (finance), financial trader. He is a Founders of Wikipedia, co-founder of the non-profi ...

. In this piece, he opined that "the structure of Wikipedia promotes hearsay, prejudice, supposition and superficiality on an equal footing with genuine information and understanding", and that Wales created the resource for his own political ends.

Personal life

Mortimer is the nephew of the British tennis player

Angela Mortimer Florence Angela Margaret Mortimer Barrett, Order of the British Empire, MBE (née Mortimer; born 21 April 1932) is a British former world No. 1 tennis player. Mortimer won three Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam singles titles: the 1955 French Cham ...

. Among his interests, he includes running. In 2017, he wrote a memoir about the meaning of running, which relates the various lessons he had learnt from taking part in parkrun and half marathons – which was published as ''Why Running Matters: lessons in life, pain and exhilaration, from 5K to the marathon'' (Summersdale, 2019).

Honours

Mortimer is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS). On 12 February 2015, he was elected a

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

(FSA).

Historical works (selected)

* ''Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter'' (The Bodley Head, 2023) * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain'' (The Bodley Head, 2022) * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain: Life in the Age of Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton and The Great Fire of London'' (The Bodley Head, 2017) * ''What isn't History? Selected Articles and Speeches on Writing History and Historical Fiction'' (Rosetta (ebook only), 2017) * ''Human Race: Ten Centuries of Change on Earth'' (Vintage, 2015; formerly published as ''Centuries of Change: which century saw the most change and why it matters to us'' by The Bodley Head, 2014) * ''The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Sixteenth Century'' (Viking, 2012) (paper: Penguin, 2013) * ''Medieval Intrigue: Decoding Royal Conspiracies'' (Continuum, 2010) * ''1415: Henry V's Year of Glory'' (The Bodley Head, 2009) * ''The Dying and the Doctors: the Medical Revolution in Seventeenth-Century England'' (The Royal Historical Society, 2009) * '' The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century'' (The Bodley Head, 2008) * "What isn't History? The Nature and Enjoyment of History in the Twenty-First Century", ''

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

'', 93, 4 (October 2008), pp. 454–74. * "Beyond the Facts: how true originality in history has fallen foul of postmodernism, research targets and commercial pressure", '' Times Literary Supplement'' (26 September 2008), pp. 16–17. * ''The Fears of Henry IV: the Life of England's Self-Made King'' (Jonathan Cape, 2007) * ''The Perfect King: the Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation'' (Jonathan Cape, 2006) * ''The Death of Edward II in Berkeley Castle'', '' The English Historical Review'', cxx, 489 (2005), pp. 1175–1214. * ''The Triumph of the Doctors: Medical Assistance to the Dying, 1570–1720'', ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', 15 (2005), pp. 97–116. * ''The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England 1327–1330'' (Jonathan Cape, 2003) * ''Berkshire Probate Accounts, 1583–1712'' (Berkshire Record Society, 1999) * ''Berkshire Glebe Terriers, 1634'' (Berkshire Record Society, 1995)

Historical fiction (writing as Ian Mortimer)

* ''The Outcasts of Time'' (UK: Simon & Schuster, 2017 US: Pegasus, 2018).

Historical fiction (writing as James Forrester)

* ''Sacred Treason'' (UK: Headline, 2010 US: Sourcebooks, 2012) * ''The Roots of Betrayal'' (UK: Headline, 2011 US: Sourcebooks, 2013) * ''The Final Sacrament'' (UK: Headline, 2012 US: Sourcebooks, 2013)

Footnotes

References

External links

Random House (publishers)

United Agents (literary agent)

Continuum (publishers)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortimer, Ian 1967 births Living people 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians 21st-century British biographers 21st-century British novelists Alumni of University College London Alumni of the University of Exeter British historical novelists British medical historians British medievalists Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Historians of the early modern period Historians of England People educated at Eastbourne College People from Petts Wood People from Teignbridge (district) British social historians Writers from the London Borough of Bromley Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period