Terry Jones

Alan Ereira

Was medieval England full of knights on horseback rescuing fainting damsels in distress? Were the Middle Ages mired in superstition and ignorance? Why does nobody ever mention King Louis the First and Last? And, of course, those key questions: which monks were forbidden the delights of donning underpants... and did outlaws never wear trousers? Terry Jones and Alan Ereira are your guides to this most misrepresented and misunderstood period, and they point you to things that will surprise and provoke. Did you know, for example, that medieval people didn't think the world was flat? That was a total fabrication by an American journalist in the 19th century. Did you know that they didn't burn witches in the Middle Ages? That was a refinement of the so-called Renaissance. In fact, medieval kings weren't necessarily merciless tyrants, and peasants entertained at home using French pottery and fine wine. Terry Jones' Medieval Lives reveals Medieval Britain as you have never seen it before - a vibrant society teeming with individuality, intrigue and innovation.

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives

We think we know all about the Romans, don't we? They gave us sophisticated road systems, chariots and the modern-day calendar, not to mention civilized society. And of course, they had to contend with barbarian hordes who continually threatened the peace, safety and prosperity of their Empire.

Terry Jones' Barbarians

Famous for lampooning the medieval world in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Terry Jones has a real passion for and detailed knowledge of the Middle Ages. In Terry Jones' Medieval Lives, his mission is to rescue the Middle Ages from moth-eaten cliches and well-worn platitudes. Behind the stereotypes of "damsels in distress" and "knights in shining armor," there are wonderfully human stories that bring the period to life. Terry will start with the medieval archetypes—the Knight, Peasant, Damsel, Monk, Outlaw, King, Merchant, and Physician—and in the course of unravelling their role and function will introduce a host of colorful real-life characters, recreating their world by visiting key locations.

Gold is not what we think. It is usually discussed in the context of wealth and art but this book has a broader subject, so fundamental that it has been largely unremarked. Informed by a mass of recent discoveries and a South American indigenous perspective, it offers a new way of understanding the history of civilization. Gold has been coinage, treasure and adornment. But it has been much more, as the hidden driver of wars and revolutions, the rise and fall of empires and the transformation of societies. As the sun traveled east to west across the sky, gold, incorruptible and corrupting, flowed west to east, hand to hand across the world. That flow has brought empires to grow and collapse and driven plunder, conquest and colonization. It brought about wars and revolutions, empowered new forms of arts and science and created the capitalist consumer economy that dominates us now. All the gold people ever shaped still exists, shining as new; it can be mislaid but never decays. Right from its first appearance on the west shore of the Black Sea, long before the rise of Egypt and Mesopotamia, gold crowned the first proto-king. Ever since, it has been regarded as value incarnate with transcendental power. The quantity we take has been increasing steadily for 6,500 years. Now extraction accelerates. Our gold mountain has doubled in the last fifty years. Yet its price increases faster. While the quantity doubled, its buying power multiplied by six. What does gold do that makes us want it so much? As Alan Ereira reveals in this skilfully woven narrative, gold is the hidden actor that shapes our story.

Gold: How it Shaped History

The Kogi, members of an isolated tribe in the mountains of Colombia, speak out about the consequences of modern living in a keen portrait of a culture that has survived unchanged for more than a thousand years. 10,000 first printing.

The Elder Brothers

The Heart of the World

Skildring af Kogi-folket i Colombias bjerge, som forfatteren besøgte i forbindelse med optagelsen af en TV-serie

The Kogi people, the "Elder Brothers" of humanity, live hidden on a mountain they call "The Heart of the World." This is the true story of how they revealed themselves to warn us of the impending calamity we are creating.

The Elder Brothers' Warning

Britain's Master Mapmaker and His Secrets

The Nine Lives of John Ogilby

Este es un libro sorprendente y divertido. No podía ser de otro modo tratándose de una obra de Terry Jones, el director de películas de los Monty Phyton como “La vida de Brian”. Pero es también un libro serio, que, como ha dicho el profesor Cunliffe, de la Universidad de Oxford, “restablece el equilibrio y sitúa a los romanos en una perspectiva correcta”. Escrito con pasión e irreverencia, pero basado en los resultados más recientes de la investigación histórica, su propósito es subvertir la visión tradicional, elaborada por los romanos, que nos habla de unos bárbaros salvajes e incivilizados, para mostrarnos que celtas, germanos, godos, sasánidas o vándalos eran pueblos organizados e inteligentes, y que fueron, por el contrario, los propios romanos quienes realizaron las matanzas más salvajes y quienes acabaron saqueando la ciudad de Roma.

Una historia alternativa

Roma y los bárbaros

Terry Jones' Barbarians takes a completely fresh approach to Roman history. Not only does it offer us the chance to see the Romans from a non-Roman perspective, it also reveals that most of those written off by the Romans as uncivilized, savage and barbaric were in fact organized, motivated and intelligent groups of people, with no intentions of overthrowing Rome and plundering its Empire. This original and fascinating study does away with the propaganda and opens our eyes to who really established the civilized world. Delving deep into history, Terry Jones and Alan Ereira uncover the impressive cultural and technological achievements of the Celts, Goths, Persians and Vandals. In this paperback edition, Terry and Alan travel through 700 years of history on three continents, bringing wit, irreverence, passion and scholarship to transform our view of the legacy of the Roman Empire and the creation of the modern world.

Alan Ereira

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