Joys Of Modern Life We Take For Granted

June 5, 2012

Interview with Lucy Worsley, author of the book If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home

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Mike Carruthers:
You have no idea how good life is today compared to the past, but you’re about to – for example; the bedroom.

Lucy Worsley:
Today bedrooms are private places but 100 years ago you’d have been quite happy to share your bedroom, even your bed, with other people – people like your colleagues from work – think about that!
 

Lucy Worsley, author of the book If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home...

For many centuries people have been very happy to share their sleeping space. Really for the want of any better alternative if you think of a medieval house it’s a great privilege to be warm and secure and privacy was pretty low down the list of requirements.

And when people did share their bed there were rules.

If you were sleeping as a family in a bed against the wall you put your unmarried daughter. Next comes the mother, next comes the father, next comes your son only then at the outside do you place any visitor to your household like a traveling pilgrim or a tinker or somebody like that. And you can see the whole point is to keep the men away from your unmarried daughters.

People have been cleaning their teeth for centuries but not the way we do it today.

In the 16th Century people were cleaning their teeth but they weren’t using brushes they were using twigs with sort of stringy ends – I know because I tried this out myself. In the late 17th century we do get the first tooth brushes being introduced.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.