Terry Jones, actor, director, author and Python, approaches this most `misrepresented and misunderstood' period in history through its principal characters. Accompanying a TV series, the book addresses and redresses many of the stereotypical images we have of the Middle Ages. Each chapter deals with a major `character', opening with the medieval peasant, discussing his life and work, his status, village life in general, his relationship with the Church and the Peasants' Revolt. After famine and Black Death, Jones turns his attention to secular and royal minstrels and entertainers, as well as medieval romance and epic tales. From here to the outlaws, gangs and legendary figures of the period, to the monk, the development of monasteries and religious orders, the crusades and Church power. The rest of the books is filled with tales of philosophers, alchemists, magicians, fraudsters, innovators and doctors, chivalric knights, damsels and, ultimately, the king himself. Written in an accessible and colloquial style, this is a great read for anyone wanting to get a glimpse of real Medieval Lives . Full of colour photographs and illustrations, and Terry Jones dressed up in various garbs!