A reading/watching listening list hastily compiled from references in the threads www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club/2785005-What-questions-do-you-have-about-stuff-from-History-or-am-I-the-only-one? and www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club/2788883-The-Historical-Ponderings-Society?
Please feel free to add/correct anything I've missed or misunderstood, as well as adding to the list!
Historical Ponderings Society Reading List
Women’s issues, medical & social
'Flow' by Elissa Stein & Susan Kim
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Sara Read: Maids, Wives, Widows: Exploring Early Modern Women's Lives 1540 – 1714
A Midwife's Tale: the Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Vintage)Paperback
Dream Babies by Christina Hardyment
Therese O’Neill: Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
Antonia Fraser: The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-century England
onthetudortrail.com/Blog/2015/02/10/the-lady-in-red-medieval-menstruation/ (Menstruation)
Jennifer Worth: Call the midwife
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b2w74
motherhoodinprehistory.wordpress.com/ (Prehistoric motherhood)
newjacksonianblog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/breast-cancer-in-1811-fanny-burneys.html (Fanny Burney’s mastectomy)
Ann Baer: Down the Common: A Year in the Life of a Medieval Woman
Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (novel)
[Not identified -Description of the progress of breast cancer in Philip Gosse's memorial to his mother, Emily Gosse]
Domestic/Everyday life in various times
Bill Bryson: At Home: A short history of private life
The Victorian Kitchen (TV series)
Margaret Powell: Below Stairs (and Climbing the Stairs)
Lena Cowan Orlin: Locating Privacy In Tudor England
Ruth Goodman: How to be a Tudor
Ruth Goodman: How to be a Victorian
Ian Mortimer: The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England
Roger Ekirch: At Day’s Close; A History of Nighttime
Peter Ackroyd: London; The Biography
www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/history_of_home.shtml (Medieval homes)
www.oldandinteresting.com/default.aspx and www.oldandinteresting.com/sitemap.htm (History of household/craft stuff)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35840393 (Knocker-uppers)
Life in Early/Prehistoric Times or primitive conditions
www.lynxvilden.com. (Living Wild)
Halldor Laxness: Independent People (novel about a family of subsistence farmers living in an Icelandic croft at the beginning of the 20th century)
Clothing
E. Jane Burns: Courtly Love Undressed- Reading through Clothes in Medieval French Culture and others
www.historyextra.com/lingerie (Medieval underwear)
www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jul/18/medieval-bras-discovered-austrian-castle (600 year old bras)
twonerdyhistorygirls.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/pins-pinning.html (18th century pins)
historicalsewing.com/regency-gown-closures (Fastenings in Regency times)
www.theshed.co.uk/oldhandknitters (Knitting)
vikingladyaine.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/nalbinding-a-brief-history/ (Nalbinding)
www.tudorgroup.co.uk/Articles/Counterblast.html (Reproducing period clothing)
[Unidentified : ‘Dead Gorgeous’ ‘The history of underwear’]
Food
www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/tudors/food-and-health/ (Tudor Food)
www.nature.com/news/archaeology-the-milk-revolution-1.13471 (Milk)
GM food www.drmicozzi.com/the-curious-case-of-corn? (GM food)
George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier (cites the role of chips in sustaining the physical and emotional wellbeing of mining communities)
Sickness & Health
Roy Porter: Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine
Roy Porter: Disease, Medicine and Society in England, 1550-1860
Roy Porter: Bodies Politic: Disease, Doctors and Death in Britain, 1650-1900
Marie-Christine Pouchelle: The body and surgery in the Middle Ages
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/what-was-the-sweating-sickness-in-wolf-hall-10037168.html (Sweating sickness)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haemophilia_in_European_royalty (Haemophilia)
www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/hanover_15.html (Porphyria)
www.newscientist.com/article/mg23231002-300-scurvy-a-tale-of-the-sailors-curse-and-a-cure-that-got-lost/ (Scurvy)
biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/07/052084 (Genome)
Fairy tales
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/red-riding-hood-math_n_4275490.html (Red Riding Hood)
www.buzzfeed.com/josehernandez/these-are-the-most-cruel-stories-behind-the-disney?bffbmain&ref=bffbmain&utm_term=4ldqpgp#4ldqpgp (Stories behind Disney)
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pf5sv?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_radio_4&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=radio_and_music (Radio programme)
Geography
Tim Marshall: Prisoners of Geography: ten maps explain everything about the world
Prof EA Wrigley et al: English Population History from 1580 to 1837
English/British Eras
Iron Age
Living in the Past – iron age village (TV series)
Norman & Pre-Norman
Harriet O'Brien: Queen Emma and the Vikings.
Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger: The Year 1000: An Englishman’s Year
Plantagenets
Ian Mortimer: The Perfect King; The Life of Edward III
E.L. Konigsberg: A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (novel- Eleanor of Aquitaine)
Sharon Penman: The Sunne In Splendour (novel – House of York)
Cynthia Harnett The Wool Pack (novel – 15th Century)
Tudors
Alison Weir: Henry VIII King and Court
Eric Ives: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn book Anne Boleyn
Alison Weir: The Lady in the Tower; the fall of Anne Boleyn
m.historyextra.com/feature/tudors/why-did-anne-boleyn-have-die (Fall of Anne Boleyn)
Ruth Goodman: How to be a Tudor
Katherine Longshore: Tarnish ( novel - Anne Boleyn)
Alison Weir: Innocent Traitor (novel- Lady Jane Grey)
Stuarts
Ophelia Field: Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough
Anne Somerset: Queen Anne; the Politics of Passion
www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-boyne-king-william-iiis-victory-in-ireland.htm (Battle of the Boyne)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_and_Mary (William & Mary)
(The First Churchills TV series)
m.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5abHKvUBQ&feature=youtu.be (Horrible Histories - The Restoration)
Neal Stephenson: The System Of The World (trilogy of novels from Interregnum to the accession of George II)
Victorians
Ruth Goodman: How to be a Victorian
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Lister (gay marriage)
Twentieth Century
The Crown (Netflix series)
Speech & Language
Bill Bryson: Mother Tongue
www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_before.html (Prehistoric languages)
debuk.wordpress.com (Feminist perspective)
mentalfloss.com/article/65261/how-word-father-unlocked-history-language (Language similarities)
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7911645.stm (Oldest English Words)
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h%E2%82%82%C3%A9b%C5%8Dl
(Proto Indo European)
www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126611.html (Caxton’s ‘Eggs’ story)
www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/regional-voices/phonological-variation/ (English accents)
(Yorkshire dialect)
Science, inventions & discoveries
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_bow and en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spear-thrower (Developing Bows)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidesaddle (Sidesaddle)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp-weighted_loom (Weaving)
www.jonsbushcraft.com/comb.htm (Combs)
www.antiquespectacles.com/history/ages/through_the_ages.htm (Spectacles)
www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/podcasts/mothers-of-invention.htm (Women Inventors - podcast)
James Burke: The Day the Universe Changed
James Burke: Connections (book & TV series) www.dailymotion.com/video/x17lrm0_james-burke-classic-the-famous-rocket-takeoff-sc and www.dailymotion.com/video/xnwpsp_veetle-connections-s01e01-the-trigger-effect_tech
David Bodanis: E = mc2; the biography of the most famous equation.
Engineering/Building/Industry
www.aracari.com/the-incas-and-the-wheel/ and
www.straightdope.com/columns/read/223/why-did-the-peoples-of-the-new-world-fail-to-invent-the-wheel (The Wheel)
. (Sheffield Steel)
Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman: Full Steam Ahead: How the Railways Made Britain (Book & TV series)
Building the Panama Canal (TV series) www.channel5.com/show/big-bigger-biggest
www.constructionenquirer.com/2013/01/09/see-how-the-tube-was-built-150-years-ago/ (London Underground)
www.channel4.com/programmes/rome-wasnt-built-in-a-day (TV series about building a Roman villa)
Religion
www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/did-historical-jesus-exist-the-traditional-evidence-doesnt-hold-up/?utm_term=.15f170564013 (Historical Jesus)
Soviet history
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor (Soviet famine )
Esther Hautzig The Endless Steppe Amazon
China
Jung Chang: Wild Swans
Gavin Menzies: 1421:The Year China Discovered the World
Michael Wood:The Story of China (TV series)
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2016/42/the-greatest-tomb-on-earth (Terracotta Army)
Archeology & Anthropology
www.wired.co.uk/article/scanning-the-past (Satellite photography)
Alice Roberts: Lost tribes of humanity (BBC series) www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z8034
Little known events
The Act of Killing (genocide in Indonesia) theactofkilling.com/synops/
The Rabbit-Proof Fence www.theguardian.com/film/australia-culture-blog/2013/dec/20/rabbit-proof-fence-rewatching-classic-australian-films
Miscellaneous/ other references
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropocene (Modern epoch)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnal_name (Regnal names)
Byzantium, the surprising life of a medieval empire, by Judith Herren.
Jared Diamond: Guns, Germs And Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13000 Years Amazon
W.C Sellar & R.J. Yeatman: 1066 and all that (All the History you can remember)
Wendy Northcutt: The Darwin Awards
Christian Jacq: Novels set in Ancient Egypt
Hysteria – Film about the invention of the vibrator www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/31/hysteria-hugh-dancy-reel-history-vibrator
www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1665/05/05/ Samuel Pepys
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroy_IV_de_la_Tour_Landry (Medieval manuscripts)
www.bbc.co.uk/culture/story/20150610-london-city-of-sin (Hogarth Gin Lane)
www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+38 (Genesis Ch 38 - onanism)
www.buildinghistory.org/primary/gerald.shtml (Gerald of Wales, including foot-washing reference)
www.poomuseum.org/blog-lloyds-bank-turd/ (Lloyds bank turd)
Historical Fiction – recommended writers
(see also various subjects for specific recommended novels)
Antonia Fraser
Alison Weir
Diana Norman/Ariana Franklin
Jean Plaidy
Sharon Penman
Elizabeth Chadwick
Norah Lofts
Katherine Longshore
Time Travel/Historical Fantasy
John Dickson Carr: The Devil in Velvet
Deborah Harkness: All Souls’ Trilogy
Susan Price: The Sterkarm Handshake
E. Nesbit: The Story of the Amulet