{"title":"Books by Alan Ereira","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780563522751","title":"Terry Jones' Medieval Lives","description":"\u003cp\u003eWas 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?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTerry 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTerry Jones' Medieval Lives\u003c\/i\u003e reveals Medieval Britain as you have never seen it before - a vibrant society teeming with individuality, intrigue and innovation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201794277554,"sku":"9780563522751","price":15.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780563522751.jpg?v=1786013911"},{"product_id":"9781036115333","title":"Gold: How it Shaped History","description":"\u003cp\u003eGold 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGold 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 travelled 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44582791676082,"sku":"9781036115333","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781036115333_b91d6c69-c759-45a8-aa76-cdd539418f78.jpg?v=1786016991"},{"product_id":"9780563539162","title":"Terry Jones' Barbarians","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eTerry Jones' Barbarians\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis 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. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56292212769141,"sku":"9780563539162","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780563539162_b2d8adfa-1347-42ea-aeec-59e536a9185a.jpg?v=1786013923"},{"product_id":"9780715652268","title":"The Nine Lives of John Ogilby","description":"Four hundred years ago, every barrister had to dance because dancing put them in harmony with the universe. John Ogilby's first job, in 1612, was to teach them. By the 1670s, he was Charles II's Royal Cosmographer, creating beautiful measured drawings that placed roads on maps for the first time. During the intervening years, Ogilby had travelled through fire and plague, war and shipwreck; had been an impresario in Dublin, a poet in London, a soldier and sea captain, as well as a secret agent, publisher and scientific geographer. The world of his youth had been blown up and turned upside down. Beset by danger, he carefully concealed his biography in codes and cyphers, which meant that the truth about his life has remained unknown… until today.In this enlightening book, Alan Ereira brings a fascinating hidden history to light, and reveals that Ogilby's celebrated Britannia is far more than a harmless road atlas: it is, rather, filled with secrets designed to serve a conspiracy of kings and England’s undoing. \u003ci\u003eThe Nine Lives of John Ogilby\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of a remarkable man, and of a covert journey which gave birth to the modern world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56294922846581,"sku":"9780715652268","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780715652268_3c0498a1-2cbf-4224-9876-fb1df62314dd.jpg?v=1786014799"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-alan-ereira.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}