Books


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Mr Darcy’s Guide to Courtship

Based on the advice of genuine courtship manuals of the 17th–19th centuries, Jane Austen’s most fancied (& most pompous) hero here offers his advice on finding & seducing a suitable spouse.

Also includes: Identifying a harlot; inappropriate chat-up lines; the rules of ladylike behaviour; the incalculable benefit of a tight pair of breeches.

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51uqnakwmql-_sl500_ The Georgian Bawdyhouse

A short & not-so-sweet introduction to life and death in the eighteenth-century brothel. Featuring murderous mobs, high-class courtesans, Giacomo Casanova’s foul-mouthed parrot and the Oxford whores drawing attention to their “bubbies” in a Georgian precursor to the wet t-shirt competition.

 

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Royal Weddings

Whistle-stop history of royal weddings from 1066–2012. Including the six wives of Henry VIII, who all vowed to be “bonny and buxom in bed”, & the 18th-century bride who may have distinguished herself by throwing up on her royal mother-in-law’s skirts on the way to the altar.

 

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517XBPFRpSL._SY300_How to be Happy Though Married (Editor)

This pocket handbook of matrimonial guidance brings together wisdom imparted to newlyweds down the ages. From the advice of Ancient Greek philosophers (e.g. keep your wife under control by stealing her shoes – she will never leave the house) to Edwardian musings on appropriate behaviour in the marital bed & beyond, this gift-book offers a fascinating and humorous survey of the pleasures & pains of married life.

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