Lucy Worsley's Blog, page 2

The last baby princess at Kensington Palace: the new Princess Charlotte’s predecessor…

My article written for t’paper, reproduced here for you…

‘SO, there’s a new babyprincessat Kensington Palace – born in time for breakfast on Saturday and back home in time for tea.

It’s very nearly two hundred years since the last time Kensington Palace was home to a babyprincess. The future QueenVictoriawas born there at 4 o’clock in the morning of 24th May 1819.

But the circumstances into which the new royal baby has been born couldn’t have been more different than those of 1819. The newpri...

A year at Hampton Court – in pictures

It’s been a year since I got rid of the photos cluttering up my phone, and so ‘a year in the life of Hampton Court’ seemed like a good topic for a picture post. It’s inevitable, if you work at Hampton Court, that you just can’t stop taking pictures of the place, and then you’re not sure what to do with them all!

A foggy day in Base Court, in January…

Snowdrops in Chapel Court, in February…

A chilly day looking towards Fountain Court, in March…

Early spring flowers in the Pond Gardens, in A...

How I’ve been getting on, on my high horse

One night, not too long ago, I was walking home from work when I got a phone call.

It was the Daily Mail. ‘We have a question for you,’ the voice said. ‘Our readers really want a historian’s professional view, if you’d be so kind.’

‘Okay,’ I said cautiously, ‘What is it?’

‘Good!’ my interlocutor responded. ‘Here’s the burning question of the day: WHAT MAKES POLDARK THE PERFECT HUNK?”

I responded with pleasure, digressing about how Ross Poldark is placed in the gaps between the various ranks o...

Murderous knick-knacks and artefacts: a re-post

Our BBC Four series on the history of murder is being re-shown on BBC Four at the moment (episode one is on Iplayer now, episode 2 will be shown next Saturday at 8pm) so I thought I would re-post this article from BBC History Magazine. You can also hear me talking about it on the History Extra podcast here.

‘As Britain’s cities expanded in the early 19th century, so too did the nation’s obsession with murder. Lucy Worsley selects a series of objects that testify to Britons’ fascination with t...

A Girl’s Guide to Greatness, or How Not to Write an Obituary

Last summer, as I was reading through the 1,000 or so pages of The Times Great Women’s Lives: A Celebration in Obituaries in preparation for writing its foreword, I was struck by how ridiculous and retrograde it was for so many of the obituaries to concentrate on the women’s hair, cooking skills and home life.

‘HA! At least those days are over,’ I thought to myself.

But then this happened. Unbelievable!

Anyway, it seems timely to give you an extract from my foreword to that book of great wome...

Why I love the Tudors (with a guest appearance by Jean Plaidy)

As everyone STILL seems to be Wolf-Hall-mad, another article from the paper this week, about why I love the Tudors…

My most treasured possessions include a battered little paperback, barely held together with sellotape:TheYoung Elizabeth,by Jean Plaidy.

Published in 1961, with a cover showing a picture of Hampton Court Palace, it tellsthestory ofthechildhood ofthefutureTudorqueen. She’s forced to display resourcefulness and mental strength to reachthethrone. She also has a weakness for dresse...

A little article on the history of the codpiece…

… I wrote for a newspaper this week. Hope you enjoy!

‘There is no hiddencodpiecememo.’

So says Colin Callendar, executive producer of the upcoming BBC Two drama seriesWolf Hall,denying claims that the size of his stars’codpieceswere reduced beyond the point of historical accuracy to avoid offending or baffling an American audience.

Actor Damian Lewis did indeed describe the black velvetcodpiecethat came with his costume as Henry VIII as a ‘little dinky one.’ But it was Mark Rylance, playing T...

Most popular posts, and best comments, of the year 2014

Hello, I hope you enjoyed the Tudor shenanigans on BBC Two last night, if you watched them!

I’m a bit late with this, aren’t I, as we’re already well into 2015? But better late than never…

These were the most popular posts of the year on my blog!Click on them to re-read them!

In fourth place …

4.A Bit of a Swoon about Chicago Private Eye V.I. Warshawski

In third place …

3.Take My Tudor Test!

In second place … although the moment for this has well and truly passed … please don’t add new ideas!...

By: If Walls Could Talk: what did we do without bathrooms?

[…] Lucy Worsley is chief curator of Historic Royal Palaces and presenter of If Walls Could Talk: The History Of The Home. […]

In which I make Ian Hislop laugh

It happened like this.  I found myself sitting next to him at a concert.  We were introduced to each other.  Conversation did not flow.  As regular readers of this blog will know, small talk is not my strong suite. But … Continue reading →