Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders

Title: Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain
Author: Judith Flanders
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date: 2006 (pbk 2007)
ISBN: 978000712962
Period etc.: 19th C Britain.

I started reading this one last autumn and instantly had to put it on my Christmas List. Despite the title, it's about leisure and shopping in 19th Britain and the origins of our consumer lifestyle. I assumed it wouldn't be as useful as her previous book, The Victorian House, but I was wrong.

It covers all social strands and aspects of 'leisure and pleasure'. Not only will it fill in the gaps as to what your ancestors might have done in their precious (and scant, in most cases!) spare time, but it's also simply a good read in itself.

I'd recommend it happily. (Oh, look, I am.)

It covers the Great Exhibition, Eighteenth century shops, Nineteenth century shops, newspapers, books, travelling (& holidays), theatre etc., music, art and sport, along with a Christmas Coda. Because I received this on Christmas Day, I read that first, which felt like a treat for the morning!

So, forgive me the long gap and I'll try and keep the recommendations regular even if I've not been an active family historian. I do intend to pull myself together. (It's basically all down to a pile of Somerset info that needs sorting. Instead, I hide and have been cheering myself up by writing fan fiction. Maybe not entirely sensible, but absolutely wonderful fun.)