Friday May 13th 7.30pm at The Stables, Kenilworth Castle : A Kenilworth Festival Event

… by day, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity looking after The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens.

… by night, a writer and presenter, most recently author of ‘Courtiers’, ‘The Secret History of Kensington Palace’ and ‘Cavalier’ which was described by the Mail on Sunday as ‘ an astonishing achievement by an immensely talented and innovative historian’.

Lucy gave an entertaining and absorbing talk about her new book ‘If Walls Could Talk’ …………

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did Samuel Pepys never give his mistresses an orgasm? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two ‘dirty centuries’? Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did people fear fruit? These were the sort of questions  answered in this juicy, smelly and truly intimate history of home life. Lucy Worsley took us through the bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen, covering the architectural history of each room, but concentrating on what people actually did in bed, in the bath, at the table, and at the stove. From sauce-stirring to breast-feeding, teeth-cleaning to masturbation, getting dressed to getting married, Lucy Worsley made us see our homes with new eyes.

We are really grateful to Lucy’s publisher Faber for enabling us to put on this event.