At Home: A Short History of Private Life (Audiobook)

Synopsis: Here is Bill Bryson's entertaining and illuminating book about the history of the way we live - complete, unabridged and read by the author.Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, considering how the ordinary things in life came to be. Along the way, he researched the history of anything and everything, from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets. And he discovered that there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement - and even a little danger - lurking in the corners of every home.Where A Short History of Nearly Everything was a sweeping panorama of the world, the universe and everything, At Home peers at private life through a microscope. Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose, and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade.

Review: I have a great affection for Bill Bryson and have read or listened to nearly all of his books, my absolute favourites being Notes From a Small Island and Notes From a Big Country. I was a bit bamboozled by A Short History of Nearly Everything though as it was far too scientific for me and I got lost amongst the atoms and subatomic particles. It was just way way over my head.

I was hoping that this would be a return to some of his earlier books (clearly I didn't read the blurb properly) and thought from the title that he would be talking, in his affable way, about the humdrumness of life in rural England. What it actually is is a book exploring the rooms in the rambling rectory where he lives in Norfolk, looking at the history behind such rooms and their objects. Though the content isn't always that straightforward, the chapter about the study turns out to be a chapter mostly about rats and mice. Similarly in the bedroom we learn all about illnesses and death and bed mites and the like (did you know that 10% of your pillows weight, after six years of use, is dead skin, dead bedbugs, dust mites and their faeces). It's like one big QI episode with facts and figures coming at you from all directions.

There are too many facts to recall but some of my favourites were the anecdote about the unimaginable extravagance of some super rich americans during the golden age whose dinner guests were presented with piles of sand and little shovels at their place settings and invited to dig for the diamonds that were sprinkled in there (which makes my most extravagant place settings of posh christmas crackers from John Lewis look a bit pathetic) and the many anecdotes about the virtues of closing the toilet lid, one of which was that if you don't, when you flush the loo, the microbes fly about for two hours settling on anything within reach .. like your toothbrush! (if that doesn't cure you then the one confirming that most rats enter a house via the toilet will .. though to be honest my loo seat is so flimsy that I'm sure a rat would have no problem with it .. note to self ... buy a heavy wooden loo seat).

Though initially I was disappointed, I soon became engrossed and Bill has a lovely laid back way of reading which made it a pleasure to listen.