The everyday realities and practical details of daily life in Elizabethan London, which most history books ignore - a Sunday Times bestseller.
Like its acclaimed predecessors, RESTORATION LONDON and DR. JOHNSON'S LONDON, this book is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of everyday life - and the conditions in which most people lived - so often ignored in conventional history books.
The book begins with the River Thames, which - from its surly water-men, to its great occasions - played such a central part in the city's life.
It then moves on to the streets, houses and gardens; cooking, housework and shopping; clothes, jewellery and make-up; health and medicine; sex and food; education, etiquette and hobbies; religion, law and crime.
this is a book for ducking and weaving through.... this makes satisfying toilet reading - especially the bits about how private loos in the age of Shakespeare were even nastier than our nastiest public loos today. - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Christopher Bray
Liza Picard brilliantly captures the spirit of the age. - EXPRESS
ELIZABETH'S LONDON is satisfyingly rich and substantial. - AROUND THE GLOBE - Daniel Hahn
Liza Picard was born in 1927. She is the bestselling author an acclaimed series of books on the history of London: ELIZABETH'S LONDON, RESTORATION LONDON, DR JOHNSON'S LONDON and VICTORIAN LONDON. Her most recent book, CHAUCER'S PEOPLE, explores the Middle Ages through the lives of the pilgrims in THE CANTERBURY TALES.
She read law at the London School of Economics and was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn, but did not practise. She worked for many years in the office of the Solicitor of the Inland Revenue before retiring to become a full-time author. She lives in London.