Spend 24 hours with the ancient Chinese.

The year is AD 17. The Han dynasty is in power and we are in and around Chang’an, the capital and one of the most developed regions of the empire, which is enjoying a prolonged economic and cultural pinnacle.

There are extraordinary palaces, military bases and city walls. Households are benefitting from the invention of numerous agricultural technologies and an unprecedented level of craft production, which includes ceramics, bronzes, iron objects and many other elaborate goods.

This is an age that is both vibrant and innovative but also riven with conflict and contradictions. For as successful as the empire is, the reality is that life for the ordinary inhabitants is still about the same problems: earning money, work struggles and family dramas.

Discover what one day in ancient China is like by spending twenty-four hours with the people who lived there. Every hour we meet a different person – from dancers to doctors, priests to convicts, textile workers to tomb looters – and build a multi-layered picture of the social fabric of ancient China and this fascinating period in history.

Spend 24 hours immersed in the rich and fascinating everyday lives of the Vikings.

Between the infamous Lindisfarne raid in 793 CE and the Norman conquest of 1066, the peoples we know now as the Vikings became one of the most far-ranging and influential civilizations in history. The Vikings are frequently portrayed as raiders, marauding across medieval Europe and Britain, but the culture and society of the medieval Nordic peoples was so much more diverse, multifaceted and influential than it is often depicted.

In 24 Hours in the Viking World, author and Viking expert Kirsten Wolf chronicles an hour in the life of 24 individuals from every corner of Viking society over the course of a single day. From the warrior to the thrall, the shipbuilder to the farmer, the poet to the oracle, each chapter offers a snapshot of the world as it was in medieval Scandinavia, and an insight into how these people lived, loved, worked, fought and died.

The latest entry in the bestselling 24 Hours series, 24 Hours in the Viking World presents an absorbing, grounded and tangible look at what it was really like to be alive during this pivotal era in history.

Also available:
24 Hours in Ancient Rome (9781789291278)
24 Hours in Ancient Egypt (9781789293517)
24 Hours in Ancient Athens (9781789293500)
24 Hours in Ancient China (9781789296488)