This is Mortimer at his accessible and witty best. As ever, his aim is not only to bring the past to life but also to illuminate our own times.

How did the button change life in the Middle Ages? If you found yourself at a smart Elizabethan party, should you kiss your hostess on the lips? Why were pistols safer than swords in a duel? And how come Regency Londoners drank so much port?

'It’s like the Aztecs seeing strange men come down from floating cities with sticks that produce thunder and lightning. There’s a bit of that in the meetings between politicians and tech people that I’ve witnessed.' observer.co.uk/culture/book...

I was half-expecting a grumpy old man. “At home I am,” he admits. “This is a performance.”