Book Review : How to be a Tudor

How to be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday LifeHow to be a Tudor: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life by Ruth Goodman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very readable book on a subject the author clearly knows a lot about.

Not only head knowledge but actual experience of living out the Tudor lifestyle and her book is peppered with real anecdotes and conclusions from her experimentation with living as a Tudor woman. It is clear that behind this book there are many years of experience and rigorous research so that she not only describes the everyday activities but she sets them in a wider context of what the Tudor world was like.

She goes into some detail on many subjects – some of which I found too detailed and skipped some of those pages – such as how to starch or make the different types of ruffs.

That aside it was a fascinating insider’s guide to living as a Tudor.

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Book Synopsis

‘Official’ Book Description


The real Wolf Hall – a time traveller’s guide to daily life in Tudor England

The Tudor era encompasses some of the greatest changes in our history. But while we know about the historical dramas of the times – most notably in the court of Henry VIII – what was life really like for a commoner like you or me?

To answer this question, the renowned “method historian” Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did – so you don’t have to! She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life, from how they slept to how they courted.

Using a vast range of sources, she takes you back to the time when soot was used as toothpaste and the “upper crust” of bread was served to the wealthier members of the house. Exploring how the Tudors learnt, danced and even sat and stood according to the latest fashion, she reveals what it all felt, smelt and tasted like, from morning until night.