The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain and Writing Historical Fiction

February 7th, 2026

I've always been somebody that obsesses over little details when I'm writing. This is especially the case for any sort of historical writing. Constantly, when I'm doing research, I'll find myself getting unreasonably frustrated at how difficult it can be to find things about the everyday life of whatever period it is I'm writing about. Yes, I know how important dukes and duchesses are, but what're some things the uber-rich do for fun? What do marriage arrangements look like? What does schooling look like? Do universities have dorms yet? (This was a question that was tormenting me for a week before I finally figured out that the University of Edinburgh didn't have student housing until the 1880s.)

It's these trifles that I think add to any sort of historical fiction, which is why I was ecstatic when my copy of Ian Mortimer's The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain came in. This edition is a little over 400 pages and is one part of a series Mortimer has going over various different eras of British history. As the title suggests, this book was written to inform a hypothetical time traveler, meaning it's chock-full of all those tiny little tidbits about day-to-day historical life that I appreciate more than anything in the world.

One thing that I think harms a historical fiction writer's process is what parts of the population history has focused on. We know everything there is about kings and queens, and that focus has obscured other parts of life in the 19th century-- we have been sharing a historical worldview with the most privileged parts of society. Mortimer touches on this in the introduction of this book, saying "In this case the very word 'Regency', with all its grand connotations, is part of the problem: it makes everything sound luxurious." (5). Books like Mortimer's become a vital resource when this is the case; he does an excellent job of forcing us to cast aside our pre-existing biases for the finer parts of historical life. Because I haven't finished the book yet, this isn't meant to be a review, so I'm not going to go out and start singing its praises already-- however, during what I have read of it so far, it feels like every other page I am pointing at the words and going 'I was just wondering about that!'. He seems genuinely dedicated to painting a picture of Regency life from all perspectives, not just the wealthy and well-off that we are accustomed to reading about in books and seeing the lives of in movies.

Mortimer shows this dedication through the meticulous detail he goes into for every section of his Guide. From explaining the needlessly complicated postal service, to how you might go about gambling, or how familiar you must be with somebody to pat them on the back in greeting-- any potential time traveler reading this book would have no difficulty fitting in with the Regency populace. I always get hung up on the small things like this when writing my historical stories or characters, so this book has been so invaluable to me so far. A majority of this book focuses on England, but it does offer insight into differences in Wales or Scotland. Since I'm currently writing something set in Scotland, I'm extremely happy to have gained insight on how Scottish people might be more religious than those in England. Of course, there are some sections that I believed were a bit lackluckster. I appreciate the inclusion of LGBTQ+ history at all, but a lot of the terms Mortimer uses are outdated and some of his claims show a dip in research quality compared to other chapters. This doesn't seem to be out of malice, but it was a little disappointing. I hope to see some improvement in that department in any other installments in his Guide series.

Doing historical research for writing purposes always reminds you of how much we don't know, and may never know. As I've already discussed, I'm a huge stickler for the average aspects of historical life, but the fact remains that we can't magically recreate the day-to-day living situation of somebody from the 1820's. As Mortimer puts it, "However, gathering and assessing evidence only gets us so far. ...To assume that it is synonymous with reconstructing the past is like thinking that, if you could reconnect ... Admiral Nelson's body, he would somehow walk and talk again." (6) It's impossible to create an exact reconstruction of the past, no matter how many of us want to. However, I think it's comforting to think about the people throughout time who have made an effort to record the lives and details of those outside of the elite. It's important to remember that while people of the past may seem mystical and incomprehensible to us now, they've experienced the same emotions as you and I. They've laughed, they've cried, and they've cursed over objectively insignificant matters just like everybody does. This is something we must infer ourselves, knowing these people were also human beings. Ian Mortimer does a good job of reminding us of that in The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain, and I hope I can do a similar one in my writing.