How to be a Victorian

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

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'

I absolutely love this book. Exuberant, absorbing ... there's scarcely a detail of Victorian life Ruth has not tried

Ruth - a woman who possesses so much elbow grease that she could probably can the overflow to sell on the side

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

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

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.

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.

Life in rural England 500 years ago

Tudor Monastery Farm

In a six-part BBC2 series this autumn, popular historians Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold go back to Tudor England to experience work as lay folk on an Abbey Farm. Shot on location at the Weald &amp; Downland Open Air Museum, Chichester, West Sussex, www.wealddown.co.uk

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.

Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn have become familiar faces on BBC2 after their hugely popular and immersive time-travelling experiments, Victorian, Edwardian and Wartime Farm. But for their fourth series, and our accompanying book, they have joined forces with Tom Pinfold to take on their biggest challenge yet: going back to Tudor England to endure the harsh realities of working for an Abbey Farm. 
 
Peter, Ruth and Tom are trained historians, driven by new research and discovery. They are passionate about bringing period details to life, and they do that for us by comprehensively inhabiting the era for months, using only materials, tools and technology available at the time, to earn their living, celebrate their holidays, clothe and feed themselves and their families. Follow them as they discover how to build a pigsty, brew their own ale, forge their own machinery and keep a Tudor household. 
 
Scrupulously researched, totally authentic and with its own contemporary narrative playing out within an accurate reconstruction of Tudor England, this is a fantastic glimpse into history, as it was lived. This is set to be Peter, Ruth and Tom’s most ambitious historical assignment yet.

Ruth Goodman

Most historians simply research the past; she lives it ... she's experienced almost every activity she describes. This book is packed with delicious kernels of knowledge ... all served up by the most delightfully eccentric author I've ever encountered. Seldom have I had so much fun reading history. Seldom have I learnt so much.

Always entertaining, and her narrative is often lifted by the fact that she has taken the trouble to experience many of the alien aspects of Tudor life ... This imbues the book with a palpable sense of the texture of our ancestors' day-to-day lives

Riveting. This is a real "people's history" that takes us straight into the sensate feelings of ordinary life -- the feel, touch, smells, and labour of people living five centuries ago, giving an earthy reality to our enduring fascination with the Tudors

A deeply researched and endlessly fascinating account of what it was like to live as a Tudor. The narrative is rich in period detail and based upon a thorough review of the contemporary sources, but what makes it unique is the fact that Goodman has put it all into practice - sleeping, eating, washing and dressing like a Tudor. As a result, How To Be a Tudor is one of very few books which can justifiably claim to bring every aspect of this enduringly popular period dazzlingly to life.

Tracy Borman, author of 'Thomas Cromwell: The untold story of Henry VIII’s most faithful servant'

Ruth is the queen of living history, long may she reign!

Leisure activities like dancing, gambling, and trips to the bear-baiting arena are brought to life by imaginative readings of primary sources... Common wisdom on everything from the healthiest sleeping position (on the right) to how to conceive a male child (by tying a ribbon around the left testicle) rounds out this engaging, erudite guide

Goodman's latest foray into immersive history is a revelation ... It's the next best thing to being there

Her enthusiasm is exhilarating and contagious; her writing is clear and clean, sharply observant of tactile details and what they reveal about 16th-century life

Engagingly written and awash in the practicalities of life in the age, it presents a vivid, fascinating era of British history and reminds us that we're never as far from the past as we like to think

Written with such passion . . . will fascinate and inform anyone who is interested in Victorian ways of life

Dr Ian Mortimer, author of 'The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England' on 'How to Be a Victorian'

If we ever have a female Doctor Who, I shall forward Ruth Goodman's name for consideration, not least because the historian has already done so much time travelling

Wonderful, informative, startling . . . Goodman's unique selling proposition as a historian is that she walks the walk of her time period, even when that walk involves hard labor in a corset and a hoop skirt

New York Times (on 'How to be a Victorian')

Goodman's passion for her subject... comes across loud and clear

A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life

The Tudor era encompasses some of the greatest changes in our history. But while we know about the historical dramas of the times - most notably in the court of Henry VIII - what was life really like for a commoner like you or me? 
 
To answer this question, the renowned "method historian" Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did - so you don't have to! She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life, from how they slept to how they courted. Exploring how the Tudors learnt, danced and even sat and stood according to the latest fashion, she reveals what it all felt, smelt and tasted like, from morning until night.

Ruth Goodman

Praise for How to be a Tudor

Most historians simply research the past; she lives it ... she's experienced almost every activity she describes. This book is packed with delicious kernels of knowledge ... all served up by the most delightf ...

Always entertaining, and her narrative is often lifted by the fact that she has taken the trouble to experience many of the alien aspects of Tudor life ... This imbues the book with a palpable sense of the ...

Riveting. This is a real "people's history" that takes us straight into the sensate feelings of ordinary life -- the feel, touch, smells, and labour of people living five centuries ago, giving an earthy re ...

Most historians simply research the past; she lives it ... she's experienced almost every activity she describes. This book is packed with delicious kernels of knowledge ... all served up by the most delightf ...

Always entertaining, and her narrative is often lifted by the fact that she has taken the trouble to experience many of the alien aspects of Tudor life ... This imbues the book with a palpable sense of the ...

Riveting. This is a real "people's history" that takes us straight into the sensate feelings of ordinary life -- the feel, touch, smells, and labour of people living five centuries ago, giving an earthy re ...

Most historians simply research the past; she lives it ... she's experienced almost every activity she describes. This book is packed with delicious kernels of knowledge ... all served up by the most delightf ...

Always entertaining, and her narrative is often lifted by the fact that she has taken the trouble to experience many of the alien aspects of Tudor life ... This imbues the book with a palpable sense of the ...

Riveting. This is a real "people's history" that takes us straight into the sensate feelings of ordinary life -- the feel, touch, smells, and labour of people living five centuries ago, giving an earthy re ...

Books by Ruth Goodman

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter