From My Blog
In which I reveal why I showed famous comedians my pants
In my last post, I planted what Sarah (our excellent editor at Historic Royal Palaces) calls a ‘witch’s tree’. Here’s an example of a ‘witch’s tree’: ‘I wanted a cup of tea, but we’d run out of milk. So I got my bag, and went out of the house. As I was walking down the
On being 2.5% famous
These days, when I meet an old friend I haven’t seen in a while, he or she always: a. congratulates me on my recent marriage (yes, very quietly, last November) and then b. asks me: ‘what’s it like to be recognized’? While hoping not to sound grandiose, I calculate that I’ve become 2.5% famous. (This
New Radio 3 series ‘Lucy Worsley’s Kensington’. And false teeth.
Hello, yep, I have a new radio series coming up. I’m guessing that you’re asking yourself the question I hear practically every day: ‘How on earth does she fit it all in?’ Here are my answers: firstly, I’m insanely energetic. Secondly, I enjoy my work, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. And third,
George III’s bath tub again, in the wonderful Georgian kitchens at Kew
More than two years ago – gosh, how time flies! – I described Susanne’s discovery of George III’s bathtub in the Georgian kitchens at Kew Palace. Now the bathtub takes pride of place in the really beautiful new presentation of the kitchens – open for your delectation since 18th May. The whole building is presented
New BBC TV series on its way: A Very British Murder
I’ve spent part of the weekend clearing out old research notes and making some new folders marked ‘Murder’. No, not a new hobby, just a new TV series on its way. ‘A Very British Murder’, its working title, was announced by the BBC this week: read the official press release here. We’re so early on
Dorothy Hartley brings me to tears
So far there my TV life there have been three people, when I’ve interviewed them on camera, who have managed to bring a little tear to my eye. The first was a lady who escaped Nazi Germany on one of the Kindertransport trains as a girl, describing being reunited with her parents at the end
Still feeling a bit 1952 after a weekend of cake and bunting?
Then you might like my article in the current Waitrose Weekend about the 1950s kitchen … Oh, there was plenty to celebrate in the 1950s. Rationing finally came to an end. Marriage rates were at their highest ever. The ‘Festival of Britain’ set a new tone of optimism. No wonder, upon the accession of a
Harlots, Housewives and Heroines – what’s it all about?
This article in today’s Telegraph will tell you what my new series is all about… ‘Fame never yet spoke well of woman’ were the rueful words put into the mouth of the king’s mistress, Nell Gwyn, by a seventeenth-century hack. I think it’s time to redress the balance. My new BBC4 series ‘Harlots, Housewives and Heroines’ is
Times Magazine interview: Lucy Worsley on harlots, heroines – and being child-free
Janice Turner in The Times Magazine, 19 May 2012. Historian Lucy Worsley discusses her own childlessness and the inspirational women who feature in her new documentary series. By his unofficial harem of mistresses, Charles II sired 13 illegitimate babies, yet his queen, Catherine of Braganza, produced not a single heir. History, as Dr Lucy Worsley
The first ‘It Girl’, or why I like Nell Gwyn, from the Radio Times
The first It Girl. ‘Pretty, witty’ Nell Gwyn used her body to get to the top, but it was her brains that Charles II desired, says Lucy Worsley Harlots, Housewives and Heroines, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC4 If I challenge you to name a seventeenth-century woman, the chances are that you’ll come up with Nell Gwyn. She was,
