Review:
It sounds like a great idea--but would you have done it? Take your family to an authentic 1900-style house in the suburbs of London and live for three months as Victorians? The Bowlers, Paul and Joyce, with their four children, Kathryn, Ruth, Hilary and Joe, were chosen for this time-travel experiment and survived well. They all admired their Victorian forebears but only Paul Bowler, the father, envied them. Perhaps this just shows that life 100 years ago may have been very good for men, but not so good for housewives or children. The girls were especially delighted at the end of the three months to be back in the age of Point Horror books, Leonardo di Caprio and hair-care products. You can get a good feel of how hard life was from the Bowler's shopping list: no hair conditioner, automatic washing-powder, kiwi fruit, frozen food, but instead, "ammonia, bathbrick, borax, candles, gelatine, lard, tapioca and turpentine." On the other hand, there are some nice surprises: toast was made in a matter of seconds, grilled before the open range. This is a fascinating picture of how life really felt in 1900, accompanying a major Channel 4 series. -- Christopher Hart
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