Billyiam's Bookshop

Books Billy would love if he weren't dead.

When you follow one of the links below you will be linked to the Amazon site and will have the opportunity to take advantage of their exceptional service to purchase these materials.

Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages : The English Experience

Michael Prestwich/Hardcover/Published 1996
Medieval warfare was hard, grueling and often unrewarding. While military life in this era is sometimes pictured in terms of knights resplendent in armour and bearing colourful standards and coats of arms, the reality more often consisted of men struggling against cold, damp and hunger, pressing elusive foes who refused to do battle. In this fascinating book, Michael Prestwich re-creates the real experience of medieval warfare, examining how men of all ranks of society were recruited, how troops were fed, supplied, and deployed, the development of new weapons, and the structures of military command. Michael Prestwich challenges many common assumptions about medieval warfare. He shows that medieval commanders were capable of far more sophisticated strategy than is usually assumed: spies were an important part of the machinery of war, and the destruction of crops and burning of villages were part of a deliberate plan to force a foe to negotiate, rather than an indication of lack of discipline. Sieges, often lengthy and expensive, were more prevalent than physical battles. And in actual engagement the mounted knight was never as dominant as is often supposed: even in the twelfth century, many battles were won by unmounted men. Medieval warfare was not, on the whole, any more chivalric than warfare of other periods, although there were many instances of individual heroism, particularly during the Hundred Years War, that brought glory and renown to those who performed them.

The Arthurian Handbook (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 1920.)
Norris J. Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, Debra N. Mancoff/Hardcover/Published 1997

The Arthurian Handbook (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, Vol. 1920.)
Norris J. Lacy, Geoffrey Ashe, Debra N. Mancoff/Paperback/Published 1997

A Book of Middle English
J. A. Burrow, Thorlac Turville-Petre/Paperback/Published 1996

Geoffrey Chaucer/Hardcover/Published 1994
On a spring day in April--sometime in the waning years of the 14th century--29 travelers set out for Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett. Among them is a knight, a monk, a prioress, a plowman, a miller, a merchant, a clerk, and an oft-widowed wife from Bath. Travel is arduous and wearing; to maintain their spirits, this band of pilgrims entertains each other with a series of tall tales that span the spectrum of literary genres. Five hundred years later, people are still reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. If you haven't yet made the acquaintance of the Franklin, the Pardoner, or the Squire because you never learned Middle English, take heart: this edition of the Tales has been translated into modern idiom.  From the heroic romance of "The Knight's Tale" to the low farce embodied in the stories of the Miller, the Reeve, and the Merchant, Chaucer treated such universal subjects as love, sex, and death in poetry that is simultaneously witty, insightful, and poignant. The Canterbury Tales is a grand tour of 14th-century English mores and morals--one that modern-day readers will enjoy.

Courtliness and Literature in Medieval England (Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library)
by David Burnley, J. D. Burnley/Hardcover/Published 1998

Medieval English Lyrics : 1200-1400 (Penguin Classics)

Thomas G. Duncan (Editor)/Paperback/Published 1996
This volume opens with the first lyrics in English to celebrate love as romantic devotion to a woman. Some Chaucerian and all other Middle English love lyrics from before 1400 are included. Devotional lyrics portraying the tenderness of the later medieval response to Christ as lover and beloved and to the Virgin Mary are fully represented along with lyrics on penitential and moral themes and 'miscellaneous' lyrics such as drinking and dancing songs, ballads, satires and poems of wit, humour and sexual innuendo. These Middle English lyrics, edited anew from the original manuscripts, are presented in a readily readable form. Grammar and spelling have been normalized to accord with the dialect of late fourteenth-century London ('Chaucerian English'). An extensive glossary is provided beside the texts to aid readers who have little or no acquaintance with Middle English. Thomas Duncan provides a full commentary on textual and linguistic issues, and in his introduction he gives an illuminating appraisal of the lyrics, their forms, themes and context.

An Introduction to the Gawain-Poet (Longman Medieval and Renaissance Library Series)
Ad Putter/Paperback/Published 1997

King Arthur : In Legend and History

by Richard White (Editor)/Paperback/Published 1998
In this volume, Richard White has collected a diverse selection of medieval Arthurian literature and history, culling from Latin, English, Welsh, French and German sources, presenting many passages translated into English for the first time. White's selections enable the reader to understand how the rich Arthurian tapestry evolved over a period of more than 500 years, King Arthur in Legend and History also includes a chronology of key Arthurian texts, maps, an appendix of Arthurian Courts, a list of sources, suggestions for further reading and a bibliography.

Alliterative Poetry of the Later Middle Ages : An Anthology (Routledge Medieval English Texts)
Thorlac Turville-Petre(editor)/Hardcover/Published 1989

English Mystics of the Middle Ages
Barry Windeatt (Editor)/Hardcover/Published 1994
This edition brings together for the first time key texts representing the writings of the medieval English mystics. The texts are newly edited from the manuscripts, and are supplemented with textual and explanatory notes and a glossary. The book focuses on five major authors, Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Dame Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. Shorter works are presented whole, where possible, and accompanied by extracts from the mystics' longer works; extracts from contemporary translations into English are also included to illustrate the reception of European mystical texts in later medieval England. Overall, this volume makes accessible some of the best work by English contemplatives and visionaries of the Middle Ages.

Language and Stage in Medieval and Renaissance England
by Janette Dillon/Hardcover/Published 1998

The Literary Guide and Companion to Middle England
by Robert M. Cooper/Hardcover/1992  
The Literary Guide and Companion to Middle England
by Robert M. Cooper/Paperback/1992  

Medieval Writers and Their Work : Middle English Literature and Its Background 1100-1500
John Anthony Burrow/Paperback/1982

A Middle English Anthology (Waynebook, 50)
by Ann S. Haskell (Editor)/Paperback/Published 1985

Middle English Dictionary
Robert W. Lewis, Marilyn S. Miller, Mary Jane Williams (Editor), Robert E. Lewis/Paperback/1995

Middle English Lyrics
by Maxwell S. Luria, Richard L. Hoffman, Richard L. Hoffman/Paperback/Published 1974

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© 1998 David Breeden