What I’m reading: If Walls Could Talk

If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home is Lucy Worsley’s followup book to her very enjoyable four-part BBC series by the same name. Which does seem a little backward to the convention of writing a history book and then attracting enough attention to warrant making a documentary, or the practice of releasing a documentary and almost immediately following it up with a coffee table book. But in the U.K., the book was originally released more or less concurrent with the series in April 2011 while Americans had to wait until March 2012.

Oh well, better late than never. I found the series on YouTube a few months ago and was fascinated and the book’s release in the U.S. has also found a happy audience. There’s an interview with the charming, erudite and pixiesh Dr. Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces (the Tower of London, Hampton Court, etc.), on NPR’s Fresh Air hosted by Terri Gross.

The TV series explores the history of the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom and the kitchen, but the book greatly expands the series. It’s not just a coffee table book to accompany the series, although if you’ve seen the series, you’ll have a happy time picturing Worsley recreating home life through the ages.

I’ll offer a full review later.

Leave a Reply