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

Note about quality: you get much better quality with the hardcover version, especially with pictures. I also bought the paperback version and the pictures were printed on cheap paper, black and white only, and poor quality. The hardcover has the pictures on special coated paper, color photos, and good quality printing. I'm extremely pleased with my hardcover copy.As for the content, this is Ruth Goodman's typical work: very well researched, extremely informative, and interesting to read. She never guesses: if she isn't sure, she actually tries the activity or item in question, which is something other authors don't do.

Ruth Goodman is the go-to domestic historian for the BBC. She has consulted and starred in many BBC series documenting life in various ages. The documentaries are nearly impossible to find in the United States (only  Edwardian Farms  is available via Amazon Streaming). In the United States, Ruth Goodman is better known as an author. This latest book, "How to Be a Tudor" is similar to her previous books ( Victorian Pharmacy: Rediscovering Home Remedies and Recipes , Wartime Farm , Tudor Monastery Farm: Life in rural England 500 years ago  and  How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life ). Since Ruth has literally lived exactly how people in the age would have lived (for as much as a year via her BBC series) she does not just quote from the history books. She goes through and explains in detail exactly HOW things were done in the domestic world. The book starts with a normal person waking up. She covers the typical house, the types of bedding and how they were made and why they had curtains and how floor rushes worked (and smelled). The book goes through an entire day in minute detail. There are chapters on washing, dressing, breakfast, what each sex did during the day, etc and finally ends with bedtime. Ruth Goodman's books fill in the gaps that almost no other historian has or even could. One example is in the chapter on dressing. She covers the Elizabethan ruffs by discussing the fabric, how much is required and how it was sewn. She moves onto how they were starched and describes making the actual starch, which vegetables were used and finally how to iron, color (temporary dye by coloring the starch) and even how to make them glossy (by rubbing the linen with a glass smoothing stone). It is really eye opening to see the amount of work required daily for a regular joe, not a wealthy noble, or a king or queen. The smells (not always where you think), the hours and the sheer strength required shows just how far we have come. I am glad to see this book has finally made it to the United States and have already preordered the audiobook version from Audible!If this subject interests you, the documentaries from the BBC will work on any cheap, portable international DVD player Amazon sells (it must play any region or region 2 and pal format). You will not be disappointed with any of them:  Tales from the Green Valley: Complete Series [Region 2 ],  Tudor Monastery Farm [DVD ], a Tudor Christmas Feast,  The Complete Victorian Farm and Victorian Christmas Farm [DVD ],  Edwardian Farm  (also available now on Amazon Video  Edwardian Farm ),  The Victorian Pharmacy [Region 2] [UK Import  and  The Complete Wartime Farm [DVD ].

If you enjoy learning where terms like "spinster" and "upper crust" come from, this book is for you. If you want to know which is more important--taking a shower or changing your underwear--this book is for you. If you want to learn how to build a clay oven and how to get the best use of it, this book is for you. Even if you just want to be amused at what people used to believe, this book is for you. Get it now.

I discovered Ruth Goodman through an interview she did with Radio West, and her fun personality made me think that this book wouldn't be a dry, boring foray into history -- and it wasn't! Goodman has done a masterful job making this period of time utterly fascinating. If you're a fiction writer, like me, the information contained in this book will become invaluable to your craft. And if you're just interested in history, like me, this book will delight, surprise, and amuse you. There is so much about this Tudor age that I didn't know and am pleased to know now. Highly, highly recommend!

Not.as good as the how to be Victorian...maybe due to more info and more recent era. Spends a lot of time explaining things which is good...definitely slides to both tales of the green valley and Tudor monetary tv programs but does not name the people she refers to(if you watch the shows you know whom.she speaks of.) Consider this book a extra to the Tudor Ministry farm book and series. But honestly unless you like dry historical books...borrow this one from the library.

Ruth Goodman weaves a tale of kings, queens, peasants, artisans, and other peoples from the late fifteenth, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.The book illustrates how people's views on sex, religion, childbirth, education, marriage and other things varied and they often had tondo wit their social background as well as who was king at the time. Issues such as work, immigration, cleanliness are also addressed, including dispelling common held beliefs about these people.This is a must have for every history enthusiast and aspiring historian. Richly descriptive, beautifully written and highly entertaining. It really feels like you've hopped into the DeLorean and gone back in time!

This book is very interesting but is SO packed with details that it is very tedious to read. It also needs better illustrations and lots more of them. I'm currently about one third of the way through it and I'm ready to quit reading it which is a shame because I've learned from what I've trudged through.

One of a kind book that talks about the ordinary people of Tudor England. There are more than enough books about King This and Queen That and their loves, but not that bring to life the ordinary man and woman. From how dairies were run to how men made the mandatory archery practice into fun to how children learned the skills they needed to function as adults, this book makes everything clear and interesting. The author has lived these lives as a well-known BBC reenactor and also has a playful style of communication that is fun to read.

With so many books about the Tudor period available, there are surprisingly few which actually deal with the normal population. In fact, fiction is sometimes better than non-fiction in giving you an idea about how people lived – with authors such as C.J. Sansom and his Shardlake novels painting an evocative picture of the period. However, most of the history books I have read concentrate on the, admittedly, larger than life characters that were in power during those time. Ruth Goodman admits that she is also fascinated with this period, but she has not written a book about the great, or the powerful, but has, instead, painted a portrait of ordinary life from dawn to dusk.We begin at cock’s crow, when people were ready to start another day; usually with a prayer. Religion was undoubtedly central to this period and, indeed, it was a tumultuous period. Still, Goodman concentrates wisely on the home in this book. So we are told about what the Tudor’s valued, how they washed, work, ate and dressed.There are lots of fascinating snippets in this book. For example, the expression ‘sleep tight’ comes from Tudor beds, which had straps at the bottom which could sag if not tightened. Who knew that, even so long ago, back and eggs were already viewed as an unhealthy breakfast and associated with those who did manual work? These are just two examples of endless interesting facts within this book. Despite us imagining the past as a more simple time, it is obvious that the average Tudor had their own rules and etiquette to be followed – from what they were allowed to wear, to how they greeted each other and when they ate. This really does give a good insight into a period when people were all too recognisable, and understandable, despite the amount of time that has passed.

What a cracking book - from someone who is passionate about history, and who has meticulously researched the Tudor era to give us fascinating details about the day-to-day life of the people from this period. I'm not a history buff as such, but I do find the 16th century an interesting time, and wished to know more about it - particularly in regard to how the lower classes lived. Thankfully, this is a very detailed, yet easy to read account, and covers such subjects as: Arising from bed to the crow of the cockerel, regimes for keeping the body clean, types of clothing worn, breakfast, education, lunch (then known as dinner), men's work, women's work, playtime, supper, getting ready for bedtime - including views on sex. 😱In the process of gaining such a wider understanding of Tudor life, I learned about farming practices, particularly in regard to the all-important, time-consuming work of the ploughman. Ploughing the fields served several purposes, one being that it provided drainage. That knowledge led me to a better appreciation of modern-day farming, in particular, the fact that (in Britain) around a third of the farm fields have an underground network of drainage pipes to remove excess water, and carry it away to ditches and streams. I felt silly that I didn't already know such 'facts' but at least I'm a little wiser now - thanks to this super book. 🙂One thing I definitely appreciated, after reading this, was that the average person never had time to be bored! Just putting simple food on the table required so much time, effort, and hard work. However, humans throughout the ages have always found time to indulge in pleasurable pastimes, so the Tudors were no different in that respect. One chapter (titled: A Time to Play) is actually devoted to the subject. The book is peppered with wonderful quotes from the period, so I'd like to include one in my review, which was taken from that very chapter:.....above all earthly things, mirthe is moste excellent, and the best companion of life...Company, musicke, honest gaming or any other virtuous exercise doeth helpe against heavinesse of mind. That was written by William Bullein in 1558. I highly rate this book, and hope I have introduced it to you in a way that will entice you to read it, devour it, and feel (like me) enriched afterwards. Many thanks for checking out my review, I'd like to think it has been of use. 📚📖 = 😊

Ruth Goodman’s focus on what life might have been like as an ‘ordinary’ person living in Tudor times was a much more interesting endeavour (to me) than accounts of the sumptuous lives of the great and the good. Or the not so great and the not so good who just happened to be wealthy.Goodman is not just a writer and researcher of the period, but known as a presenter of ‘Reality History’ programmes, where she carries out, as far as possible, practical exercises to see just what things might have been like – how DO you bake bread in a Tudor oven, with flour which is very different from today’s kind, how do you make Tudor ‘ale’ from scratch, fermenting your grains.Overall, the reading left me feeling utterly exhausted – because the life of a working class Tudor person was unbelievably, dreadfully hard – if, for example, you worked the land, ploughing was something which went on for most of the year, and work needed doing on the soil, No mechanisation of course, and the ploughman, in summer, would be up by 4.30 am and would finish with darkness – so the working day might end at 10pm. And there would be the oxen/horses to take care of. The life of Mrs Ploughman was no bed of roses either. Fires to tend, bread to bake, ale to brew, not to mention endless children to bear, care for and keep out of the way of the fire, the bread and the ale!The structure of the book works well. Goodman takes us from dawn to dusk, and by this device bolts on all sorts of other considerations – what do you do with your small amount of earned leisure, what was the Tudor attitude to sex – the day ends with bedtime, after all – what about the clothes you wore, how would they have been made, how were they washed?I was fascinated to read how in some ways little changes – what sounded like a description of a Tudor rave where“an alehouse keeper in 1606 in Yorkshire was fined for holding Sunday dances that were attracting over a hundred young people to dance to the music of the piper and drummer he had laid on”I’m not planning on trying this one myself but Goodman wanted to see whether our perception of everyone in Tudor times stinking because they didn’t wash themselves top to toe – but just the bits that showed – hands and faces, was accurate. Well, apparently those Tudors who could were scrupulous about changing their undies. Goodman discovered to her surprise (we are of course talking about natural fabrics rather than synthetics) that for true stinkyness the wrong choice is to bathe the entire body but wear the undies for several days. Unwashed bodies with daily fresh undies is the sweeter smelling option. And is even more remarkable (those undie changes) when you think that hot water did not gush from taps, everything had to be heated on wood (or coal) fires, so clean linen was an incredibly time consuming activity.I was impressed by the care and understanding Tudor agriculturalists showed to their land and their seeds. Not for them the disaster we have made of the earth by flogging land to mineral deficiency by monoculture, and by drastic reduction of the seed bank, leaving our crops far more vulnerable to the effects of a blight which could sweep world wide. The Tudors were farming via rotation of crops, allowing a field to lie fallow to replenish every few years – and deliberately mixing varieties of grain, so vulnerabilities to a decimating pathogen attacking a single species is minimisedI was fascinated to discover how formal and controlled society was – there was legislation around clothing – depending on your social class and employment certain cloths, cuts and colours were not allowed and fashionistas who attempted to dress ‘above their station’ could be prosecuted. Clothes were meant to show who you were, and what your place was in society. Wearing clothes not applicable to your class, wealth or occupation was in some ways seen as attempting fraud or deception. I thought about modern attempts, for different reasons, to ban female clothing covering the body on French beaches. Clothes as a medium of state controlThere was so very much to enjoy and find fascinating in this – and, particularly as a female, to feel incredibly grateful to be living in this place and this time. Many of us feel desperately short of time, with far too much to do..but, in truth we are remarkably fortunatePerhaps one enviable thought is that this was a time of expansion, and a time of confidence, particularly in Elizabeth’s reign. A sense of energy, positivity – and I suppose the still felt repercussions of the Renaissance.My only real cavil with the book itself comes from making the wrong decision to get this on digital download – I strongly advise the wood book. There are illustrations, and on digital they are not where you want them. They are all lumped at the end, difficult to get to/make happen, and there is no way of knowing where they might have usefully fitted into the text. Some of Goodman’s not quite easily understood instructions on how to make a ruff or the layers and slashings on doublets, kirtles, false sleeves and the like would have made much more sense with facing pages of illustrations.That aside, this was an absorbing read, and I am minded to investigate a similar book she has written about the Victorians

Ruth Goodman takes us back to the Tudor period (1485 – 1603) with another fascinating and informative read. I would seriously recommend that you read the introduction before starting the main body of the book, as this gives you a better idea of what you will be reading about, and why most of the extracts come from pieces mainly from the south of England.With chapters set out as certain times of the day so we are led onto information about clothing, eating and drinking habits, work and so much more, with elements showing us what life was like from those at the lower end of the spectrum, up to the nobility. We are taken through the education system of the period as well as the entertainments and sports available, with of course archery still at the top, when it was still a requirement to provide bowmen to the monarch for war.As the author has done so much research into the period, as we have all seen on TV, other publications and books, so this provides an in depth look into a period that has become extremely popular with many people, and indeed is a favourite time of Ruth Goodman herself. Although of course this was a long way back for us, we can still feel the influences of this period today, even down to the way we have the courses set out for a large meal, with a soup starter, mains, dessert and a cheese board on offer. Also, we have drinking looked at here and why what we call ale today is not what a Tudor would consider it to be, instead labelling it as beer, a concoction that like lager came to us from mainland Europe.Taking in the different public houses and blood sports, so we are taken on a trip through the fashions of the age and the relevant sumptuary laws. Along with this is of course the way that clothes could be used as currency as such, and were still important in wills, after all for many centuries what may have been a garment for someone could eventually become an alter cloth or used in other religious ways, as items were handed down or willed to others throughout the stage of their wear.With drinking we also have a look at sex in the period, and how homosexuality became illegal in a secular way, and not just something for the ecclesiastical courts, as well as trying to work out what sodomy really is, and prostitution. With marriage laws looked at and how for instance in Wales being illegitimate was not such a big deal as in England, this does give us food for thought. We also look at how medicine and the different humours of the body were perceived, thus meaning that some people would make dietary changes for their supposed wellbeing.With illustrations, an index and other elements that you would expect, this does make for a rewarding book for the general reader who is interested in this period of our nation’s history.

Quite an interesting and fairly enjoyable look at the lifestyles of Princes and paupers in the Tudor era. There is also a similar book '' How to be a Victorian'' which I have now placed on my TBR list.' 'How to be a Tudor'' is an interesting look at life in 16th Century England (mainly) although it is fairly obvious that many of the stories could have and most probably would have occurred throughout Great Britain.As a keen reader and learner of History, this survey of life wetted my appetite with many varied topics such as clothing, sex, procurement, mealtimes and pass- times.The end of the book has an illustration section highlighting life by way of Tudor Art.I did find a few of the topics a tad laborious especially the chapters detailing bread baking, brewing beer and also on farming techniques. I am sure these topics would be more interesting to those who are keen in the practical application of the topics. However, this is an interesting and concise look at life during Tudor times and is a must read for any history enthusiast.3/5