Once again my biannual Medieval England course comes around. I am trying to decide on good cheap enjoyable monographs that will supplement my mainly political, somewhat economic social series of lectures. There is no textbook. One I've already decided on is Hanawalt's The Ties that Bound. It's well written, gives vivid detail, discusses things I never get around to in lecture.
Barber writes accessibly, but the subject matter is going to be largely political.
Also, this has some connection with a BBC2 miniseries. All of which make me wonder. The students couldn't make head nor tail of Duby's style, and so the book didn't work.