A lively account of medieval England through the eyes of its most famous poet and chronicler Who were Chaucer's thirty-three pilgrims, and why were they heading to Canterbury? What do they and their tales tell us about medieval England as a place and the daily lives of its people? Nicholas Orme, one of our leading historians, brings literature and history together to answer this question, using the Canterbury Tales and the other great writings of Chaucer's day. In ten chapters, he explains what people thought: about time and space, religion and the social system. He shows their wide degree of literacy and how they spent their leisure. He takes us through the politics of the day, the crusades, and the lifestyles of the nobility, clergy, townsfolk and country dwellers, along with the landscapes they lived in. This is an intimate and intriguing guide to the world which produced the first poetry in Middle English, recreating Chaucer's England in all its richness and variety.