the realities of everyday life - and the conditions in which most people lived - so often left out of history books. This period of mid Victorian London covers a huge span: Victoria's wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived the underworld prostitution crime prisons and transportation; the public utilities - Bazalgette on sewers and road design Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities - Peabody Burdett Coutts - and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport trains omnibuses and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops e.g. Peter Jones Harrods; entertaining and servants food and drink; unlimited liability and bankruptcy; the rich the marriage market taxes and anti-semitism; the Empire recruitment and press-gangs. The period begins with the closing of the Fleet and Marshalsea prisons and ends with the first (steam-operated) Underground trains and the first Gilbert & Sullivan.
starting withRestoration Londonand followed byDr Johnson's London. From the outset, Picard admits that Elizabethan London proved an even greater challenge to reconstruct, as "few buildings survive", and "artefacts and clothes from the time are rare". Nevertheless, through painstaking detail, Picard wonderfully recreates the crowded chaotic sights and smells of everyday life in late 16th-century London.Her journey starts, like so many admirers of the city from Chaucer to Ackroyd, on the river Thames, "a uniform opaque grey" in Elizabeth's time, but "fairly unpolluted, judging from all the fish in it," and "a superb processional route between the royal palaces." From here Picard surveys London life, from its main streets, its water supply and its civic buildings of timber and stone, to the houses, people, clothes, food, drink and entertainment that defined one of the most prosperous cities in 16th-century Europe.Everything is told in all its raw, sensual detail, from the ways in which "the butcher's professional skills" were used to disembowel those unfortunate enough to be convicted of capital offences, to the cost of pins for dressmaking--one shilling and eight pence per thousand. At times, the sheer detail of Picard's book can be overwhelming, and there is no specific argument that unites her observations, but the sheer scale of information is extremely impressive. --Jerry Brotton
the stuff of her books, andDr Johnson's Londonupdates her 1997 volume,Restoration London, by one hundred years or so. Samuel Pepys gives way to Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, though, entertainingly, she shows no affection for the pair. She pursues them solely for their era, stretching 30 years from 1740 to 1770, pivoted on the publication of Johnson's Dictionary in 1755. Starting with a "virtual" sedan-chair tour of the city, she proceeds to elucidate every aspect of urban life, with particular attention paid to the poor, and the "middling sort", a fledgling middle class. This goes some way to redressing a balance which historically has tended to favour the rich and famous, who left behind the majority of buildings and ephemera.Picard's conversational style, as bursting with rhetorical questions as a primary teacher, belies the breadth of her reading and research. Her informality breathes life into dry descriptions, and her sharp eye lends itself to shrewd selection from source passages. The familiarity of this Blackadder-esque London is borne out by its physical dimensions, with parks, hospitals and even bridges already starting to become recognisable to a contemporary eye, as well as its phenomena, such as lottery tickets and road rage. Although Picard sways between tenses with a giddy ease, adding a sprinkling of her own curious observations, her assimilation of information renders her prose sprightly, whether she be observing a meal in "real time", or delighting in the medical remedies, often involving quite the worst ingredients (though it's useful to know that powdered roast mouse is a reliable cure for incontinence). Saving the best to last, the concluding pages offer a cost of living index, which, as Picard admits, almost renders the book redundant. From a 1/2d half-loaf of bread to a £64,000 reward, it evocatively summarises the victuals and commodities of the time, and closes a bustling, collective portrait of the city not just of Johnson, but also of Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and William Hogarth.--David Vincent
the stuff of her books, andDr Johnson's Londonupdates her 1997 volume,Restoration London, by one hundred years or so. Samuel Pepys gives way to Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, though, entertainingly, she shows no affection for the pair. She pursues them solely for their era, stretching 30 years from 1740 to 1770, pivoted on the publication of Johnson's Dictionary in 1755. Starting with a "virtual" sedan-chair tour of the city, she proceeds to elucidate every aspect of urban life, with particular attention paid to the poor, and the "middling sort", a fledgling middle class. This goes some way to redressing a balance which historically has tended to favour the rich and famous, who left behind the majority of buildings and ephemera.Picard's conversational style, as bursting with rhetorical questions as a primary teacher, belies the breadth of her reading and research. Her informality breathes life into dry descriptions, and her sharp eye lends itself to shrewd selection from source passages. The familiarity of this Blackadder-esque London is borne out by its physical dimensions, with parks, hospitals and even bridges already starting to become recognisable to a contemporary eye, as well as its phenomena, such as lottery tickets and road rage. Although Picard sways between tenses with a giddy ease, adding a sprinkling of her own curious observations, her assimilation of information renders her prose sprightly, whether she be observing a meal in "real time", or delighting in the medical remedies, often involving quite the worst ingredients (though it's useful to know that powdered roast mouse is a reliable cure for incontinence). Saving the best to last, the concluding pages offer a cost of living index, which, as Picard admits, almost renders the book redundant. From a 1/2d half-loaf of bread to a £64,000 reward, it evocatively summarises the victuals and commodities of the time, and closes a bustling, collective portrait of the city not just of Johnson, but also of Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett and William Hogarth.--David Vincent
Advantages: easy to read, fascianting Disadvantages: some facts repeated
...If you were to name one of the most eventful periods in London's long and turbulent history the decade following the Restoration of the throne by Charles II in 1660 would come up near the top of the list. This was the decade of the Great Plague of 1665 followed a year later by the Great Fire of London. It was a time hen the monarch was merry and his mistresses such as Nell Gwyn (the orange seller and actress) were plentiful. Since I have moved to the capital I have become interested in the history of London and I felt this period would be an interesting one to focus on so borrowed LizaPicard's Restoration from our local library.
Restoration London is a fascinating read. It is a social history of London that uses contemporary sources such as Samuel Pepys's diary, court records, etiquette books and other fascinating sources...
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Advantages: great characters, compelling, interesting storyline Disadvantages: it has to finish
...if it was just going to be another yawnsome sex-fest, but it wasn’t.
Rather charmingly, the sex was written about in a fairly coy way. You followed the preliminaries and the aftermath, but the actual act tended to be described with the use of stars, before continuing with the next part. I much prefer this to orgasmic romps on sun-kissed beaches.
The novel is light and frothy, fun and lively, interesting and compelling. We empathise with the characters early on and are soon rooting for X’s relationship with Y to break up, or for A to get together with B.
I also associated with the main characters so quickly because they are women and around my age, so that helped too. I would say this is definitely a woman’s novel, the paperback equivalent of a chick-flick.
It chronicles a year in the life of three friends – Liza...
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...I have read quite a few ill Mansell books owing to a job lot of them that I bought off Ebay for a few quid. I had always enjoyed the ones I have read and to be honest I didnt't expect this one to be any different and to be fair I really enjoyed it. So much so in fact that I read it in practically a day! I
The story starts and it is New Years Eve, four o clock in the afternoon and lifelong friends Dulcie, Liza and Pru are having a meal together, reminiscing of years gone by and making resolutons for the coming year.
All Dulcie wants is a Divorce She has been married to Partick for the best part of six years and is tired of him and his work obsession. He never notices her or spends time in her company long enough to work out what she wants or needs. he claims he is doing it to make money for THEM but Dulcie is no longer happy...
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23.10.2006
