Lucy Lethbridge (born Hammersmith, London) is a British author of non-fiction books for children and adults.
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| Audio | |
 “Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 2, 2014: Interview with Lucy Lethbridge; Review of new Sam Philips' box set; Commentary on Netflix's "micro-genres.", Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Scroll down to 'View online' to hear the audio interview. | |
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 "Opinion Journal: You'll Never Need Windex Again" , Bari Weiss, 20 May 2016, WSJ Video |
Career
editLethbridge is the author of a history of the largest single occupation in 20th century Great Britain: Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth Century Britain (Bloomsbury, March 2013).[1] She examines the difficult and changing relationships between employers and domestic workers in the 19th and 20th centuries.[2][3] Servants in the 19th and 20th century were found in all but the very poorest houses, ranging from a single "skivvy" in a poor household, to country houses whose staff numbered in the hundreds. Lethbridge has drawn from a wide range of both oral and written accounts to create a book that is "empathetic, wide-ranging and well-written".[4][5]
Drawing on the same research, Lethbridge has also published Spit and Polish: Old-Fashioned Ways to Banish Dirt, Dust and Decay[6]> and Mind your manors : tried-and-true British household cleaning tips. Both how-to books contain traditional household hints and by-gone tricks for looking after homes. These range from the useful to the ridiculous and sometimes the revolting (e.g. "hang the skin of a freshly killed bear in your bedroom.")[7]
Lethbridge has collaborated on a number of history books for children in the "Who was..." series from Short Books, Inc. Ada Lovelace, the Computer Wizard of Victorian Britain, won the Blue Peter Book Award for non-fiction in 2002.[8] Other titles include Annie Oakley : sharpshooter of the Wild West, Henry Smith : his life & legacy, Florence Nightingale, St. Francis of Assisi : the patron saint of animals, and Napoleon.[9]
Lethbridge writes for magazines including The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday and The Times Literary Supplement. She preceded Sue Gaisford as the Literary Editor of The Tablet[10] and has been a London correspondent for ARTnews in New York.[11] She has been the literary editor of The Catholic Herald,[12] and has edited the collection A Deep but Dazzling Darkness: An Anthology of personal experiences of God with Selina O'Grady.[13]
References
edit- ^ Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 2, 2014: Interview with Lucy Lethbridge; Review of new Sam Philips' box set; Commentary on Netflix's "micro-genres.". National Public Radio (U.S.) WHYY, Inc. 2 January 2014. OCLC 958461502.
Scroll down to 'View online' to hear the audio of the interview.
{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help) - ^ Lethbridge, Lucy (17 January 2014). "For domestic workers, it's still a 'Downton Abbey' world". IndyStar. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Ford, Cecilia M. (26 December 2013). "Book Review: Lucy Lethbridge's 'Servants' or Why We Love 'Downtown Abbey'". Woman's Voices for Change. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Moore, Charlotte (16 March 2013). "Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth-century Britain, by Lucy Lethbridge – review". The Spectator. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Price, Leah (29 November 2013). "The Help and the Helped 'Servants,' by Lucy Lethbridge". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Lethbridge, Lucy (4 February 2016). "Spit and polish: best way to banish dirt is to follow Victorian household tips". Express. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Hodgson, Moira (20 May 2016). "You'll Never Need Windex Again". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ "Lucy Lethbridge". Bloomsbury Publishing. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ "Results for Lucy Lethbridge biography". Worldcat.org. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ "In conversation with Brendan Walsh, literary editor, The Tablet". Vulpes Libris. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ "Monday, October 1, 2012 ARTNEWS". Mastheads.org. 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Lucie-Smith, Alexander (4 April 2013). "Don't believe in Downton: what life 'below stairs' was really like". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Howse, Christopher (12 October 2002). "Sacred mysteries". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
