Crypt cover art

Crypt

Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond

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Crypt

By: Alice Roberts
Narrated by: Alice Roberts
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About this listen

 THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER
CHOSEN BY WATERSTONES AS ONE OF THEIR BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF 2024

'Compulsive . . . A wonderful display of how modern archaeology can bring hidden histories to life' Daily Telegraph

'Gripping . . . I found it hard to put down' Evening Standard

'Another really good book from archaeologist Alice Roberts . . . Helps you understand the facts on a technical level, but also makes you feel them in your bones' New Scientist

'Robert's reflections on Thomas Becket and Canterbury Cathedral are especially entertaining . . . Fascinating' Spectator

The new book by Sunday Times bestselling author of Ancestors and Buried - the final instalment in Professor Alice Roberts' acclaimed trilogy.

We can unlock secrets from bones preserved for centuries in tombs, graves and crypts.

The history of the Middle Ages is typically the story of the rich and powerful, there’s barely a written note for most people’s lives. Archaeology represents another way of interrogating our history. By using cutting-edge science to examine human remains and burials, it is possible to unearth details about how individuals lived and died that give us a new understanding of the past – one that is more intimate and inclusive than ever before.

The seven stories in Crypt are not comforting tales. We meet the patients at one of the earliest hospitals in England and the victims of the St Brice’s Day Massacre. We see a society struggling to make sense of disease, disability and death, as incurable epidemics sweep through medieval Europe. We learn of a protracted battle between Church and State that led to the murder of Thomas Becket and the destruction of the most famous tomb in England. And we come face to face with the archers who went down with Henry VIII’s favourite ship, the Mary Rose.

Beautifully written and expertly researched by Professor Alice Roberts, Crypt is packed with thrilling discoveries that will make you see the history of Britain afresh.©2023 Alice Roberts (P)2023 Simon & Schuster, UK Archaeology Best of 2024 Europe Great Britain England Thought-Provoking Military

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All stars
Most relevant  
I learned a lot and enjoyed the stories as well as the facts about these various ‘bones’.

Highly recommended! Though the book isn’t about crypts… it’s about the people who were buried within…

Brilliant, educational and entertaining!

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Deep dive into some fascinating stories from the past, and beautifully read by the author.

Absorbing

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I really enjoyed the chapter on the anchoress and the world in which she lived. Telling the stories of people like this makes them more real than they often appear on the written page.

A really interesting way to approach the diseases and injuries people have suffered in the past

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Great read , big fan of Alice Roberts all her books are a great & fascinating read

Mixed with medieval history

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Another fascinating book by Professor Alice Roberts, looking this time at what can be discovered by examining medieval skeletons and graves. There's more medical detail than I'd expected, and some aspects of the "story" required discussion of far more recent discoveries, but it was all presented clearly and accessibly, and added to the interest for me.
As a very competent communicator of science, the Prof is an excellent narrator of her own work. I wish more of my university tutors had been so eloquent and engaging while lecturing.

Fascinating but pretty detailed

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I love Alice’s writings, as non fiction and highly factual books they’re still highly accessible to the common man.

Another brilliant book

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the depth of Information and how Alice Roberts always makes a complicated subject accessible and interesting

always something new

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I learnt so much about disease and the history of it that I really hadn’t expected to. It’s a wonderful book.

Thoroughly thought provoking

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Wonderful details that were never able to be fitted into a TV programme. Great read.

Impressive

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Alice Roberts has never written a bad book, and 'Crypt' is one of her very best. The detailed analysis of ancient bones has been revolutionised by modern science and we can now understand and celebrate the lives of those who went before. Bones can tell us so much about pathology, injury, diet, life and death. Our ancestors suffered from some horrible diseases, and Roberts describes many of them in grim detail, but there are other fascinating facts we can discern from bones. Skeletal abnormalities, for instance, have helped us understand the role of archers on the Mary Rose, their stories etched in bone and muscle. A fantastic book and as ever, beautifully narrated by the author.

'Biographies that were never written'

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