If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home - Hardcover

Worsley, Lucy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802779956 ISBN 13: 9780802779953

Publisher: Walker & Co, 2012

Synopsis

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries"? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? All these questions will be answered in this juicy, smelly, and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, this book will make you see your home with new eyes.

Praise for If Walls Could Talk
"Dr. Lucy Worsley charts the evolution of the British home ... It's a fascinating journey."-Daily Mail (UK )
"Anecdotes, jokes and fascinating facts come thick and fast ... Worsley's eye for quirky detail is so compelling you quickly find yourself gripped by the most unlikely subjects."-Mail on Sunday (UK )
"Saucy intimacies and salacious secrets ... I was glued."-Country Life (UK )

About this title

Review:

'Fascinating history ... it is very useful to have these histories of different purposes brought together under one banner ... highly accessible.' -- The Herald >> 'Almost every page contains [a] diverting nugget. Worsley is like a larky tour guide, whirling us round the seedier corridors of the royal palaces ... it's all terrific fun.' -- Bee Wilson, Sunday Times >> 'Anecdotes, jokes and fascinating facts come thick and fast ... Worsley's eye for quirky detail is so compelling that you quickly find yourself gripped by the most unlikely subjects ... a very enjoyable beginner's guide to British domestic life.' -- Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday >> 'This book has an excellent title.If Walls Could Talk hints at saucy intimacies and salacious secrets - and the reader (blushing, if male), isn't disappointed ... I was glued.' -- Clive Aslet, Country Life >> 'She is almost school-teacherly, but has a naughty twinkle in her eye and a talent for self-deprecating personal intervention that allows her book to wear its learning lightly ... engaging.' --Stella Tillyard, Daily Telegraph

'It all works. From the plethora of detail emerges Worsley's overarching point, which is that "every single object in your home has its own important story to tell".' -- Observer Paperback of the Week >> 'Fascinating intimate history.' --Daily Telegraph

Book Description:

A fascinating look at how people really lived, loved and died over the centuries, to tie-in with Lucy Worsley's major television series for BBC2 and BBC4, with Silver River productions, to be broadcast in Spring 2011

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker & Co
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0802779956
• ISBN 13: 9780802779953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 351