by Liza Picard (Author)
How did you clean your teeth in the 1660s? What make-up did you wear? What pets did you keep?
Making use of every possible contemporary source, Liza Picard presents an engrossing picture of how life in London was really lived in an age of Samuel Pepys, the libertine court of Charles II and the Great Fire of London. The topics covered include houses and streets, gardens and parks, cooking, clothes and jewellery, cosmetics, hairdressing, housework, laundry and shopping, medicine and dentistry, sex education, hobbies, etiquette, law and crime, religion and popular belief. The London of 350 years ago is brought (and sometimes horrifyingly) to life.
'A joy of a book ... It radiates throughout that quality so essential in a good historian: infinite curiosity' Observer
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
Edition: Digital original
Publisher: W&N
Published: 06 May 2004
ISBN 10: 1842127306
ISBN 13: 9781842127308
Book Overview: 'From poverty to pets, from medicine to magic, from slang to sex, from wallpaper to women's rights' A glorious portrait of life in London from 1660-1670 by the bestselling author of ELIZABETH'S LONDON.
Liza Picard was born in 1927. She is the bestselling author an acclaimed series of books on the history of London: Elizabeth's London, Restoration London, Dr Johnson's London and Victorian London. Her most recent book, Chaucer's People, explores the Middle Ages through the lives of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.
She read law at the London School of Economics and was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, but did not practise. She worked for many years in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue before retiring to become a full-time author. She lives in London.