Monthly Archives: May 2012
Harlots, Housewives and Heroines – what’s it all about?
This article in today’s Telegraph will tell you what my new series is all about… ‘Fame never yet spoke well of woman’ were the rueful words put into the mouth of the king’s mistress, Nell Gwyn, by a seventeenth-century hack. I think it’s time to redress the balance. My new BBC4 series ‘Harlots, Housewives and Heroines’ is
Continue ReadingTimes Magazine interview: Lucy Worsley on harlots, heroines – and being child-free
Janice Turner in The Times Magazine, 19 May 2012. Historian Lucy Worsley discusses her own childlessness and the inspirational women who feature in her new documentary series. By his unofficial harem of mistresses, Charles II sired 13 illegitimate babies, yet his queen, Catherine of Braganza, produced not a single heir. History, as Dr Lucy Worsley
Continue ReadingThe first ‘It Girl’, or why I like Nell Gwyn, from the Radio Times
The first It Girl. ‘Pretty, witty’ Nell Gwyn used her body to get to the top, but it was her brains that Charles II desired, says Lucy Worsley Harlots, Housewives and Heroines, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC4 If I challenge you to name a seventeenth-century woman, the chances are that you’ll come up with Nell Gwyn. She was,
Continue ReadingHarlots, Housewives and Heroines: seventeenth century women
I’ve been told that they’ve already been showing trailers for ‘Harlots, Housewives and Heroines’ starting May 22nd on BBC4 at 9pm: this is the official BBC explanation of what it’s all about. ‘In this new three-part series historian and Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces Dr Lucy Worsley immerses herself in the world of Restoration
Continue Reading‘Your Life’ (or more accurately, it’s ‘My Life’) in Sainsbury’s Magazine
This portrait was notable as the first time I’ve ever worn false eye-lashes – and it could well be the last time too, nasty spidery things they were! ‘Your Life’, Sainsbury’s Magazine, p. 25, June 2012 Having a sense of vocation is both lucky and valuable. When I was nineteen I visited a National Trust property
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