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icowden

Legendary Member
Yes, once you take the rose-tinted specs off, nostalgia is not all it is cracked up to be, in my experience ;)
There's a great series of books by Jodi Taylor - The Chronicles of St Marys. It concerns an historian who takes a job at St Marys and discovers an eccentric and disaster prone team who investigate major historical events in contemporary time (and do NOT call it time travel!). One of the points that she constantly puts across is how the past isn't a Hollywood movie. It stinks, vaccinations are required because of disease, clothes are uncomfortable and itchy, the status of women and men can be very variable etc. Very funny and enjoyable books IMHO.
 

BoldonLad

Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
Location
South Tyneside
There's a great series of books by Jodi Taylor - The Chronicles of St Marys. It concerns an historian who takes a job at St Marys and discovers an eccentric and disaster prone team who investigate major historical events in contemporary time (and do NOT call it time travel!). One of the points that she constantly puts across is how the past isn't a Hollywood movie. It stinks, vaccinations are required because of disease, clothes are uncomfortable and itchy, the status of women and men can be very variable etc. Very funny and enjoyable books IMHO.

I will look them up, but, I am old enough to actually remember a lot of it! 😊
 

BoldonLad

Old man on a bike. Not a member of a clique.
Location
South Tyneside
There's a great series of books by Jodi Taylor - The Chronicles of St Marys. It concerns an historian who takes a job at St Marys and discovers an eccentric and disaster prone team who investigate major historical events in contemporary time (and do NOT call it time travel!). One of the points that she constantly puts across is how the past isn't a Hollywood movie. It stinks, vaccinations are required because of disease, clothes are uncomfortable and itchy, the status of women and men can be very variable etc. Very funny and enjoyable books IMHO.

I did look them up, but, they are advertised as "for young people", which rather rules me, and, even my children, out.

Grandchildren may be interested, but, I detect from the "eye rolling" when I fall into the trap of talking about "the olden days" that their interest would be minimal.

I do recall one, to me, amusing incident, with the two grandsons (at that time, age about 9 and 10). I took them on a Visit to Beamish Museum (a sort of open air museum, mostly replicating North East life, from about 1780-1960).

There is a small Drift Coal Mine (not sure if it is "real" or a replica),

The boys went to the "coal face" and watched as a "miner" hacked lumps of coal from the seam, with a pick.

Later, we went into one of the replica miner's cottages, where there was a real coal fire burning, in a Range.

I explained to the boys that the coal they had just seen being dug out, was what was burning on the fire. They looked at be oddly and said "grandad, where you really that poor that you had to burn stones?".

Thankfully, Both of them are intelligent, and well educated enough that I doubt they will ever have to be coal miners ;)
 

icowden

Legendary Member
I did look them up, but, they are advertised as "for young people", which rather rules me, and, even my children, out.
Ignore that. Its bollox. They are just good books. I did read one to my daughter when she was 13 but found myself having to miss out sex scenes and she found some parts (particularly the start of book two which has a jack the ripper film noire feel) to be too scary. I have no idea why they insist on trying to categorise books as "young adult" or whatever. The only criteria these books would meet in that area is that the staff at St Mary's prefer not to use the F word.
 
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