How To Be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Tudor Life

by Ruth Goodman

Overview

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR
A New York Times Book Review Editors Choice Selection

An erudite romp through the intimate details of life in Tudor England, "Goodman's latest…is a revelation" (New York Times Book Review).

On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. A celebrated master of British social and domestic history, Ruth Goodman draws on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions to serve as our intrepid guide to sixteenth-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this “immersive, engrossing” (Slate) work pays tribute to the lives of those who labored through the era. From using soot from candle wax as toothpaste to malting grain for homemade ale, from the gruesome sport of bear-baiting to cuckolding and cross-dressing—the madcap habits and revealing intimacies of life in the time of Shakespeare are vividly rendered for the insatiably curious.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631492532
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	01/17/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	195,477
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ruth Goodman is the author of multiple books including How to Be a Victorian. An historian of British life, she has presented a number of BBC television series, including Tudor Monastery Farm. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 At Cock's Crow 1

2 To Wash or Not to Wash 17

3 Dressing 41

4 Breakfast 86

5 Education 89

6 Dinner 121

7 Men's Work 150

8 Women's Work 175

9 A Time to Play 189

10 Supper 230

11 And so to Bed 261

Bibliography 291

Illustration Credits 302

Acknowledgements 303

Index 305

Editorial Reviews

"[How to Be a Tudor] 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."

NPR.org - Genevieve Valentine

"[Goodman’s] enthusiasm is exhilarating and contagious."

Boston Globe - Kate Tuttle

"Immersive, engrossing…a reminder that while we believe we see the past from a detached, enlightened perspective, our view is often blinkered, and so is our notion of what constitutes human needs and nature.… The revelatory truth behind the sumptuous gowns and palaces of Wolf Hall isn’t how badly those kings and princesses smelled but just how hard everyone else was working in the rest of their world."

Salon - Laura Miller

"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

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

Lucy Worsley

"Goodman’s latest foray into immersive history is a revelation…This fascinating book shows us commoners at their patriotic Sunday afternoon archery practice and Henry VIII playing tennis in a crimson satin doublet, with evening prayers for all. It’s the next best thing to being there."

Sarah Ferguson

01/25/2016
Utilizing substantial research and her own experiences as an occasional historical re-enactor, Goodman (How to Be a Victorian) delves into the nuances of the daily lives of the average English person living during the era of the flashy, fraught Tudor court. She matter-of-factly starts and ends the chronicle with the sleeping area, but includes surprising details about clothing, food production, education, and more as she navigates the course of one 24-hour period. Goodman offers simple but thorough explanations of how things work—whether rope-strung beds or common, reliable hygienic practices—while still entertaining readers, making note, for example, of how her knowledge of the era’s linguistics heightens her own enjoyment of Shakespeare’s bawdiness. In fact, her participation in 15th-century bread-baking and other period activities offers specific insight on where previous historians and popular depictions have erred, especially regarding long-held notions of poor hygiene and invariably sedate dancing scenes. Although there’s some discussion of the English Reformation’s impact or other court-led legal changes, the emphasis remains on the ordinary and very practical people often overlooked by other Tudor-centric historical examinations. Throughout, Goodman’s palpable enthusiasm and clear appreciation for the resourcefulness of the era’s people make these men and women entirely relatable and yet full of surprises. Illus. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2016
Goodman (How To Be a Victorian) is well known to lovers of BBC series such as Tudor Monastery Farm. Instead of kings and queens, this book focuses on the lives of ordinary people, from those in gentlemen's households to tenant farmers. Goodman leads readers through a typical day but manages to squeeze in quite a bit about children's education and the theater despite these experiences being uncommon to all people in the period. Chapters on men's and women's work explain in depth an everyman's trade or two, and while cheese and beer making are perhaps appealing topics to modern readers, the detailed instructions on how to prepare a field for plowing are perhaps less so. Later sections on washing and dressing are also particularly intriguing. Surprisingly, descriptions of food take up little space and are saved for the end. VERDICT Goodman describes lifestyles she's lived herself; that personal commentary is something readers will not find in other histories. This book will be of special interest to fans of the miniseries Wolf Hall, in which the author served as a consultant.—Cate Hirschbiel, Iwasaki Lib., Emerson Coll., Boston

Library Journal

2015-11-24
An intimate look inside the 16th-century household. In this natural follow-up to How to Be a Victorian (2014), historian Goodman mines advice manuals, poems, letters, Shakespeare's plays, and even cookbooks to etch in captivating detail a portrait of life in Tudor and Elizabethan England. The majority of the population lived in the countryside, toiling from the cockerel's crow to sunset. They rose from bed in a drafty room, emerging, if they were lucky, from a curtained four-poster and feather bed, keeping them warm even in winter; from a ruder wooden bedstead and wool mattress; or, if they were servants or laborers, from a hay mattress on the floor. Goodman has tried them all. "I can confidently state," she writes, "why so many Tudor people gave beds a central position in their thoughts." The author has also donned typical linen underwear, confidently debunking the myth that medieval people reeked of body odor. Even without daily baths (proscribed to prevent pores from opening to "evil miasmas or foul air"), she "remained remarkably smell-free" after three months. Goodman has also eaten Tudor food: with many farm chores begun at dawn, dinner was served as early as 10:00 or 11:00. Bread was the staple, served at every meal, taking the place of rice, pasta, potatoes, and, often, vegetables. Goodman offers recipes for breads and porridge, describes all varieties of ovens, and discloses the proper way to roast temptingly succulent beef or lamb. Tudor food, she writes, is "fresh and seasonal and cooked over wood or peat fires whose smoke is a pleasant flavor addition." As to daily labor, the author has done enough ploughing with unwieldy ploughs to attest that it is exhausting. She has also made cheese, fashioned ruffs, shot Tudor-style bows and arrows, and learned to make silk braids, a skill at which her daughter became so expert that she was a hand double on Wolf Hall. Fresh and illuminating history.

Kirkus Reviews