Booklog 20/2021: The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain

[jacey]

There wasn't much in this book that I didn't know, but that's because I did extensive research for my three Rowankind books. But how I wish I'd had this book when I was buying masses of books for research and disappearing down internet rabbit holes for days on end. It has everything I needed in one succinct volume. There's loads of practical information here about how long it takes to travel from point A to point B, how much it will cost and how long you have to find a privy while your coach's horses are being changed at an inn. If you were dropped into the Regency period with this handbook, you could probably integrate pretty well (though your accent might be a bit strange to the locals). Chapters cover: landscape; London; The people; Character; Practicalities; What to Wear; Travelling; Where to Stay; What to Eat, Drink and Smoke; Cleanliness, Health and Medicine; Law and Order, and Entertainment.

 

The information is comprehensive, the style is readable. I had this on Kindle, but i will buy the paperback when it comes out later in 2021 as it's a great little reference book for the period. It's not strictly the Regency which only lasted for eleven years, but it covers what people think of as the wider period, from the 1789 to 1830. It compares and contrasts life through the period, noting changes. It covers this extraordinarily varied period from privileged scoundrels to the abject poverty of the urban poor; the cruelties of the law which would hang a child for stealing a handkerchief, to the beginnings of prison reform. It is, at once, comprehensive and succinct, and a great starting point for anyone interested in the period. I don't normally read non-fiction from beginning to end (I tend to dip in and out for research) but this read as easily as a novel. Though one warning to kindle readers, the illustrations are a dead loss in that format. You might do better with a Kindle Fire, or (probably) a dead tree version.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I have to admit to reading more non fiction than anything else, but that's due to being a historian, I guess! :o)

[jacey]

I buy a lot of non-fiction, especially when I'm in the middle of a project like the (Georgian) Rowankind trilogy, but I don't blog it unless I read it from cover to cover, and I must admit that if I'm using it for research I'm more likely to skim it and only read (properly) the sections I need. Otherwise I would spend so much time on research that ('d never write the damn book. I read this one purely for pleasure.

[hrj]

Thanks, I just bought myself a birthday present! Hey, who am I kidding, I don't need an excuse.

[jacey]

I hope you like it as much as I do.

[julesjones]

Added to my wishlist, thanks. :-) Only the wishlist because I already have a *very* full Kobo.

[jacey]

It's available in dead tree format later this year and I'm very tempted to a copy for reference.