Description
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME WITH THE BBC'S RUTH GOODMAN
We know what life was like for Victoria and Albert. But what was it like for a commoner - like you or me?
How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish? Catch the omnibus to work and do the laundry in your corset?
How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman is a radical new approach to history; a journey back in time more personal than anything before. Moving through the rhythm of the day, this astonishing guide illuminates the overlapping worlds of health, sex, fashion, food, school, work and play. Surviving everyday life came down to the gritty details, the small necessities and tricks of living and Ruth will show you how.
If you liked A Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England or 1000 Years of Annoying the French, you will love this book.
*****
'Goodman skilfully creates a portrait of daily Victorian life with accessible, compelling, and deeply sensory prose' Erin Entrada Kelly
'We're lucky to have such a knowledgeable cicerone as Ruth Goodman . . . Revelatory' Alexandra Kimball
'Goodman's research is impeccable . . . taking the reader through an average day and presenting the oddities of life without condescension' Patricia Hagen
We know what life was like for Victoria and Albert. But what was it like for a commoner like you or me? How did it feel to cook with coal and sprinkle tea leaves on the carpet? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish?
About the Author
Ruth Goodman is a historian who specializes in the everyday life of the past. She has written and presented numerous acclaimed BBC television series and is a regular presenter on the One Show. She is the author of How to be a Victorian, and has co-authored three other books, including the Number One Bestseller Victorian Farm.
Reviews
Written with such passion that one cannot help but be carried along . . . Will fascinate and inform anyone who is in any way interested in Victorian ways of life -- Dr Ian Mortimer, author of 'The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'
A delightful read . . . allows us to see how the Victorians lived from day to day. A triumph -- Judith Flanders, author of 'The Victorian City'
Shocking, exciting, wonderful -- Clive Anderson * BBC Radio 4 *
Written with such passion that one cannot help but be carried along . . . Will fascinate and inform anyone who is in any way interested in Victorian ways of life -- Dr Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
A delightful read . . . allows us to see how the Victorians lived from day to day. A triumph -- Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian City
Shocking, exciting, wonderful -- Clive Anderson * BBC Radio 4 *
I absolutely love this book. Exuberant, absorbing ... there's scarcely a detail of Victorian life Ruth has not tried -- A N Wilson * Mail on Sunday *
Ruth - a woman who possesses so much elbow grease that she could probably can the overflow to sell on the side * Independent *
Goodman's enthusiasm for history is as palpable as her contempt for misty-eyed interpretations of it * Telegraph *
Beetonian, compendious * Guardian *
Highly readable, often amusing and sometimes shocking, this is popular history at its best * BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine *
Book Information
ISBN 9780670921362
Author Ruth Goodman
Format Paperback
Page Count 464
Imprint Penguin Books Ltd
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 380g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 29mm
