Ways of Dying in 1665

Barnaby I read a biography of Rasputin (by his daughter, or granddaughter, I think) when I was seven and my teacher actually contacted my parents about it as he was worried about it's suitability. They'd long since given up on vetting my reading material. Cue Last Tango in Paris at twelve......

Tunip I'm very interested about your MIL and the toothbrush. I missed that thread. I'll be phoning my grandma in the morning to ask her what she did!

The Broadmoor one on the Kindle's good, I've just finished that. Some bits were quite sad though, especially reading about the women who had babies whilst there.

And, I found out today (scientific not historical, but it shocked me!) that a kiwi's egg is about 40% the size of its body. All I could think was ouch.

That book reminds me of reading I Claudius and Claudius the God when I was at Primary School.Goodness knows what the teachers thought,it is highly unsuitable for small girls I suppose-but enthralling.

I've just been looking at the history section in Kindle books and have ordered a selection of free ones,including 'A Dictionary of Vulgar Slang' written during Georgian times,a book about people sent to penal colonies,a book on crime and punishment in Victorian Edinburgh,letters of a prarie homesteader, a black history,and verbal history of the Apache people.Enough to be going on with for now.

Just noticed I put mental hospital rather than state hospital in the book link above.

My DH is willing to listen to me, but not for too long, but other than that I haven't met anyone else who is interested in this stuff.

Don't know why, its a valid and fascinating field of study.

One of the first such books I read was Suetonius' Twelve Caesars when I was about 13. I gobbled it up and kept it in my school bag, it was the first inkling I had that history wasn't all clean and glorious

Oh,I liked 'The Floating Brothel' too R2

I like it here,none of my friend in RL reads,or if they do it is chick lit.I certainly couldn't have any conversations like these with them,they'd get a fixed grin and be backing away from me.If I recommended any of these books they'd be running away from me.

at people actually reading my recommendations. That never happens in real life. I usually get a stiff polite smile and then they edge away a bit......

Can I recommend a few more:

The Pox
Put what where??
Suitcases from a mental hospital attic. Incredibly touching and cheaper than Presumed Curable (which is superb but ££££)
Montaillou - hard going but fascinating
Tuskagee Syphilis experiment
Floating Brothel. Female convicts and Australia. Loved this one, very readable

[Basks in the warm glow of MN history geeky luff]

Is anyone here bidding on 'Presumed Curable' on ebay? Only I don't want to bid against anyone on this thread.

MoreBeta of your bargain.

I have ordered it (not new! )
Sadly Amazon have stopped free delivery to Australia for £25 (must have been a Christmas thing) so I'm getting that and a few others delivered to my Dad's instead and will pick them up when I get there. :)

That book looks brilliant. Look at the price new!

Was just browsing in a local charity shop yesterday and came across this little gem for just £2.50 in hardback.

Plague Pox and Pestilence: Disease in History

Bargain!

Well done BarnabyMirage!

great! make sure you pause between biscuits to post the juiciest bits on here.

I ordered that book "the history of womens bodies" from our local library on Tuesday and it is in now. I am off now to get it and a packet of choc hob nobs and that is my afternoon

oh that's great BarnabyMirage thanks!

BarnabyMirage I luffs you. Truly. :o

Hearts A list [I wanted one too]
Faber's Reportage
Bechamo or Patsteur
The Baroque Cycle
Books of CJ Sansom
Montacute House
Nora Lofts
The Emperor of all Maladies
Extrodinary Hunter-father of modern surgery
The Giant,O'Brien-Hilary Mantel
1066 and all that
Harris's book of Covent Garden Ladies
The Painted Veil
A parcel of patterns
Medieval death
Children of winter
The diary of Samuel Pepys
The Year of Wonders
Doomsday Book
The years of rice and salt
Katharine-Anya Seton
Journal of the plague year-Defoe
A history of women's bodies
Birth,a history
Midwives tale,Martha Ballard
Presumed Curable
Women at work
Not only the dangerous trades
Why didn't they tell the horse?

I actually feel a bit sick now at the thought of putting that in my mouth.

How do they clean the bristles?

I don't want to put something that tastes of badger arse in my mouth.

Oh my God, on this one the review says that the bristles came out in their mouth.....

Badger bristle brush on Amazon for those who want to try it out

oh I do like historical jokes. My grandma used to tell one about a curate visiting a quarry which she had got in big trouble for telling as a teenager because it was disrespectful of the Church.

more entertainment value along the Bald Badger lines. Apparently it varies between the explanation I gave before, people never having heard of it, the idea being that the white stripe between the black ones making a badger look bald, and the "bald" being a shortened version of piebald (which means white and (usually) black in colour)

' Animal bristle was not an ideal material as it retains bacteria and does not dry well, and the bristles often fell out.' (wiki)

First nylon toothbrush, 1938.

It all falls into place.

I'd never heard 'bald as a badger' - my dh always says 'rough as a badger's arse'!
But perhaps that's just how he imagines a badger's arse, I don't know if he has ever seen one.

(he has seen badgers, but I mean I don't know if he actually got a look at their arses.)

(or felt their arses, which is what you would have to do to know if it was rough or not.)

I thought badgers had quite soft hair - where are the bristles then? Shaving brushes were/are made from badger hair and it's very soft and long. Apparently, and I don't know how true this is, the saying "bald as a badger" is a shortening of "bald as a badger's arse", where they used to take the hairs to make the brushes.
:)

Toothbrushes - that's interesting, how recent the dental hygiene thing is.