peasants – Going Medieval

Sneak Peek: The Middle Ages, a Graphic History (out now!)

Friends, my comic is officially OUT in the UK! (Americans and Aussie/Kiwi friends have to wait until September, I am very sorry.) To celebrate, or tide you over in case you are still waiting I thought I would give you my loves a peek inside, and give you a better idea of what happens when you put 1100 years of history into 176 pages, with pictures.

A Very Short Introduction to the Black Death

The Department of Transportation invited me to come give a talk on the Black Death, and have kindly shared it on YouTube. One note for myself! In the talk I incorrectly state that peasants’ wages in England went from 15 Denarii to 17 Denarii. That is way too much! It is actually 5(.12) Denarii to 7(.22) Denarii. This simply reflects my desire to give all peasants a raise. I hope you enjoy!

On collapsing time, or, not everyone will be taken into the future

Because I will never know peace, and apparently the memory of most public commentators is the same length as my cat’s, the bad plague takes are sadly back. This time they come to us via – I swear to god – NBC News Opinion and one Michael Oren who is, as will become clear, emphatically not a medieval historian and could have just not written the garbage that I am about to yell about.

On defeats, small people, and the UK election

Lovelies, it is a dark time here in the UK. Our last election has gone very badly indeed for those of us who want to protect the vulnerable and build a better world. It can be difficult to watch a status quo which harms us reassert itself, especially when many of us have worked very hard to overturn it. As the dust settles and we collect ourselves in the face of a bitter reality, I have started thinking about how this feeling is nothing new, and there are some positives that we can think about.