How to be a Tudor by Ruth Goodman

I give this book 10 out of 10 acorns.  wanted to review this book and bring it to people's attention because, although a history book, it contains so much which is relevant to those of us living a simpler life using the available tools and plants around us. Ruth Goodman is the undisputed queen of household history, but her true passion lies in the Elizabethan era and she lived for a year as a Tudor, experiencing the day to day world of those people and she describes it all beautifully in this book. From going  'pooless', distilling herbs for oils, using soot for toothpaste, using herbs as insectacides, cooking, raising animals and caring for thm etc. One also realises how hard people had to work to keep alive, to keep going all year around so that you were fully prepared for all seasons. Full of really useful information, interest and if nothing else, a cracking good read
Available through Amazon

Currently reading her book How to Be a Victorian, and enjoying it. Picked up some useful laundry tips, too! Will have to check out the Tudor book sometime, too.

A couple named Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman in Port Townsend, WA live with Victorian-era tech (such as an actual ice box, oil lamps, high-wheel bicycles, etc.), and write about it from an experiential history perspective. I find it interesting, and often pick up some good off-grid tips for my homestead and travel (I do long-distance backpacking, and last summer I camped in my truck for five months while working in a national forest). Interesting to see how people used to do things and how that compares with the solutions I’ve hashed out.

We are using one of the victlrian tips for underfloor ventilation with winebottles in the pig pen.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I love experiential history. I have spent a fair amount of time learning about 1830’s pioneer life on the prairie, and learning skills such as spinning, dyeing and weaving, open fire cooking, etc. I also enjoyed the Foxfire books - learned a good deal from them. So this book sounds interesting!

Ruth Goodman has been part of a BBC series that can be found on You Tube; starting with "Tales from the Valley", and on to "Monastic farm", that moves through the Eras up to and including WWII Britain farming.  Although I am quite sure her books have more details, the video series is VERY informative.  

Time proven tips that are quite useful for today's homesteaders.  I have used many of them myself for sometime now.

Cheers!  K

Kate Michaud wrote:Ruth Goodman has been part of a BBC series that can be found on You Tube; starting with "Tales from the Valley", and on to "Monastic farm", that moves through the Eras up to and including WWII Britain farming.  Although I am quite sure her books have more details, the video series is VERY informative.  

Time proven tips that are quite useful for today's homesteaders.  I have used many of them myself for sometime now.

Cheers!  K

I watch all her series. THe monastic farm is my personal favourite but still lovethe others.

I had no idea she'd written a book! I found it on amazon, and you can actually read a large portion of it there! (just click "look inside" above the picture of the book). https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492535/

I really, really, REALLY want this book now! I love reading about medieval/Tudor England, and I loved the documentaries Ruth was in (Especially Tales of the Green Valley!). There's a thread her on permies with links to youtube videos of  the various historacal documentaries that she was involved in: https://permies.com/wiki/26430/Historical-Farming-Documentaries

Nicole Alderman wrote:I had no idea she'd written a book! I found it on amazon, and you can actually read a large portion of it there! (just click "look inside" above the picture of the book). https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631492535/

I really, really, REALLY want this book now! I love reading about medieval/Tudor England, and I loved the documentaries Ruth was in (Especially Tales of the Green Valley!). There's a thread her on permies with links to youtube videos of  the various historacal documentaries that she was involved in: https://permies.com/wiki/26430/Historical-Farming-Documentaries

We are sisters! Try the Monastery Farm too.

I'm so glad you posted this here. I'm a big fan of all her historical farming video series - there's a huge amount of information in them showing how things used to be done, so I imagine this book would would be really useful.

I just finished reading the book! I give it 10 out of 10 acorns! The first third of the book is full of facinating tidbits on why and how people did things. The last bit has less of the explanations, and more of just explaining and describing their social mores and activities. It was all very fascinating, and there were a lot of times I had to share info with my husband, like "Do you know why swashbucklers were called that? Because they would swagger in such a way to make their sword 'swash' against their buckle. People could hear them coming from far away because of the sound of their walk!"

This book is extremely well researched, with tons of references in the back, and lots of fascinating bits about medieval and Tudor England. Really, a must-have for those that love the medieval time!