So you want to be a re-enactor?

If you are into, or think you might get into, the strange business of historical re-enactment, then travel writer Tim Moore's new book I Believe in Yesterday is for you.

Moore time-travelled through 2000 years in the company of re-enactors, from the Iron Age to the American Civil War, and I can't do better than quote the Random House publicity blurb:

"I Believe in Yesterday is an odyssey through 2,000 years of filth and fury, where men were men, the nights were black, the world was your outside toilet and everything tasted faintly of leeks."

Telegraph.co.uk has an extended extract covering his visit to the Great Annual Recreation at Kentwell Hall, Suffolk, the UK's leading Tudor re-enactment site.

Moore is unexpectedly appointed to the role of Chamberlain (newbies normally get lowly duties), which includes greeting the feared school visit parties.

He soon learns his lines: "And how many summers have you, childer of Romford, in the county of Essex?", as the brats snigger at his codpiece. Great stuff.

Kentwell Hall has posted two DVD extracts on Youtube on Tudor Clothes and Food. There are also plenty of other Youtube uploads on events at Kentwell.