Rich and wonderful. You have never seen the world like this before. Ian Mortimer describes it as a joyful, learned book and calls it a global Middle Ages for our time. The New Yorker notes that wisdom fills the pages of this highly entertaining story.

From the bustling bazaars of Tabriz to the mysterious island of Caldihe, where it was said that sheep grew on trees, Anthony Bale brings history to life in "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages" and invites the reader to travel through a medieval world marked by wondrous marvels and long-lost landmarks. On a journey with scholars, spies, and saints, from Western Europe to the Far East, the antipodes, and the ends of the earth, this is no ordinary travel guide. It includes everything from profane pilgrimage badges, Venetian laxatives, and flying coffins to encounters with bandits and meetings with princesses.

With previously unpublished contemporary accounts from as far afield as Turkey, Iceland, Armenia, North Africa, and Russia, "A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages" is a vibrant atlas that blurs the line between real and imaginary places. It offers the reader a vivid and unforgettable insight into how medieval people understood their world – a world full of stories, longings, and fantasies, of cherished pasts and yearned-for futures.

Dr. Helen Castor, author of "Blood and Roses," describes it as masterful, panoramic, beautifully written, and vividly presented – a book to be enjoyed. Seb Falk, author of "The Light Ages," calls it a captivating journey into the past and across the world, noting that this book takes us to places we can hardly imagine, but the most remarkable thing we might find could be ourselves.