The World of Marketing: Passing Things On

I used to be a big fan of the Middle Ages. If I had had a time machine during my childhood, I would probably have tried to visit England in the time of King Richard. Knights, castles, heraldry, chivalry, falconry — I thrived on it all. One of my favourite books was Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott, made even more attractive by the fact that it takes place partly in Sheffield, my hometown. (And it had Robin Hood in it!)

It’s a passion I didn’t lose until just a few years ago when I read a book called The Time Traveller’s Guide to the Middle Ages. This took readers back to those times and described in great detail what life was actually like: the levels of hygiene, the medical practices, the brutality of daily life, and so on. It put me off. One toothache would have made one’s life a misery — provided that one survived the host of illnesses or local wars which seemed ubiquitous during those times.

In this series of articles, I have been arguing that our modern world view is j