For many years there's been a popular notion, perpetuated by scholars, that childhood in medieval times did not really exist. Instead, children were considered to be small adults.
But a new book has turned this theory on its head. Nicholas Orme's Medieval Children shows that the love and indulgence we show our children today was easily matched by medieval parents.
In the next in our series about medieval childhood, Henrietta Otley investigates family life in the company of Nicholas Orme and social historian Christina Hardiment. Nicholas Orme, Medieval Children, Yale University Press; ISBN: 0300085419, £25
