The New York Times Book Review - Sarah Ferguson
Goodman's latest foray into immersive history is a revelation…she has made a name for herself by literally walking in the shoes of the people she studies, at all levels of society…This fascinating book shows us commoners at their patriotic Sunday afternoon archery practice and Henry VIII playing tennis in a crimson satin doublet, with evening prayers for all. It's the next best thing to being there.
Slate - Laura Miller
"Immersive, engrossing…a reminder that while we believe we see the past from a detached, enlightened perspective, our view is often blinkered, and so is our notion of what constitutes human needs and nature. It’s one thing to pay lip service to how much the Western family has changed over the past several centuries and another to witness someone recreating the way it once worked…The revelatory truth behind the sumptuous gowns and palaces of Wolf Hall isn’t how badly those kings and princesses smelled but just how hard everyone else was working in the rest of their world."
Boston Globe - Kate Tuttle
"[Goodman's] enthusiasm is exhilarating and contagious; her writing is clear and clean, sharply observant of tactile details and what they reveal about 16th-century life…Goodman approaches a plainspoken lyricism, a prosaic celebration of her ancestors and the world they made."
Lucy Worsley
"Ruth is the queen of living history, long may she reign!"
Tracy Borman
"A deeply researched and endlessly fascinating account of what it was like to live as a Tudor. The narrative is rich in period detail and based upon a thorough review of the contemporary sources, but what makes it unique is the fact that Goodman has put it all into practice—sleeping, eating, washing and dressing like a Tudor. As a result, How To Be a Tudor is one of very few books which can justifiably claim to bring every aspect of this enduringly popular period dazzlingly to life."
Sarah Ferguson
"Goodman’s latest foray into immersive history is a revelation…This fascinating book shows us commoners at their patriotic Sunday afternoon archery practice and Henry VIII playing tennis in a crimson satin doublet, with evening prayers for all. It’s the next best thing to being there."
NPR.org - Genevieve Valentine
"Engagingly written and awash in the practicalities of life in the age, [How to Be a Tudor] presents a vivid, fascinating era of British history and reminds us that we're never as far from the past as we like to think."
Library Journal - Audio
04/15/2016
Historian Goodman (How To Be a Victorian) specializes in the Tudor and Victorian periods of history, serving as a consultant to museums, heritage attractions, and screen productions such as the recent adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Additionally, she appeared in the BBC2 series Tudor Monastery Farm. Goodman meticulously researches primary documents (e.g., wills, cookbooks, public records) to reveal the intricacies of the daily life of the period, and if she doesn't understand how something specific worked in Tudor times, she re-creates the conditions and attempts to duplicate the situation. Goodman, who capably narrates, shares her experiments in activities ranging from bread baking to starching the huge ruffs that were so popular with men and women. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and listeners will be enthralled by her stories of different types of plows, irrigation, marriage rites, and other details, such as the mandatory possession of a bow and arrow by males from the age of seven, Sunday archery practice was a pastime akin to Sunday golf, and styles of clothing were dictated by law. VERDICT Highly recommended for those who love social history and England. ["Goodman describes lifestyles she's lived herself; that personal commentary is something readers will not find in other histories": LJ 2/1/16 review of the Liveright: Norton hc.]—Cheryl Youse, Moultrie, GA
JUNE 2017 - AudioFile
If you wear linen undergarments and scrub your armpits briskly each morning, you won’t smell as bad after a month without bathing as you might imagine. Historian and author Ruth Goodman knows this because she tried it out, saving us potential social embarrassment while providing both entertainment and education. Narrator Heather Wilds starts out rapid-fire and overenunciated, as if she’s determined to make listeners sit up straight. But within a few chapters, Goodman’s humor and enthusiasm, and the factual delights—no underpants!—loosen Wilds’s delivery. After that, listeners benefit from her pleasant, even voice and the knowledge that in the 1500s archery practice after church on Sunday was considered a man’s patriotic duty. A.C.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
