> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 27 June 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241958346
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480
Categories:

How to be a Victorian




Horrible History ... for adults. Brimming with frank, witty and often gruesome observations, BBC star Ruth Goodman describes what Victorian life was really like

Step into the skin of your ancestors . . . 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? Dress in whalebone and feed opium to the baby? Surviving everyday life came down to the gritty details, the small necessities and tricks of living . . .

How To Be A Victorian by Ruth Goodman is a radical new approach to history; a journey back in time more intimate, personal and physical than anything before. Moving through the rhythm of the day, from waking up to the sound of a knocker-upper man poking a stick at your window, to retiring for nocturnal activities, when the door finally closes on twenty four hours of life, this astonishing guide illuminates the overlapping worlds of health, sex, fashion, food, school, work and play. Drawing on Ruth's unique first-hand experience, gained from living for a year on a Victorian farm, as well as a life devoted to practical historical study and experimentation, this book will teach you everything you need to know about 19th century living.

  • Published: 27 June 2013
  • ISBN: 9780241958346
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480
Categories:

About the author

Ruth Goodman

Ruth Goodman is a specialist in British social history. She appeared as a presenter on all three previous Farm series, and co-authored the tie-in books. She is also a regular expert on The One Show.

Peter Ginn is a trained archaeologist and historian, and appeared in all the previous series. He studied at University College London and has a passion for making the past accessible to all. Tudor Farm is the latest project in his career of 'avoiding a proper job'.

Tom Pinfold is the latest addition to the Farm team. A military historian, he has worked on a number of naval events in Liverpool in conjunction wtih the Royal Navy, and has also worked as an archaeologist at the Museum of London.

Also by Ruth Goodman

See all

Praise for How to be a Victorian

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

A delightful read . . . allows us to see how the Victorians lived from day to day. A triumph

Judith Flanders, author of The Victorian City

Beetonian, compendious

Guardian

Goodman's enthusiasm for history is as palpable as her contempt for misty-eyed interpretations of it

Telegraph

Highly readable, often amusing and sometimes shocking, this is popular history at its best

BBC Who Do You Think You Are magazine

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

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