A groundbreaking account of what it was like to live in a Victorian body from one of our best historians, author of The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton and George Eliot: The Last Victorian. Why did the great philosophical novelist George Eliot feel so self-conscious that her right hand was larger than her left? Exactly what made Darwin grow that iconic beard in 1862, a good five years after his contemporaries had all retired their razors? Who knew Queen Victoria had a personal hygiene problem as a young woman and the crisis that followed led to a hurried commitment to marry Albert? What did John Sell Cotman, a handsome drawing room operator who painted some of the most exquisite watercolours the world has ever seen, feel about marrying a woman whose big nose made smart people snigger? How did a working-class child called Fanny Adams disintegrate into pieces in 1867 before being reassembled into a popular joke, one we still reference today, but would stop, appalled, if we knew its origins? Kathryn Hughes follows a thickened index finger or deep baritone voice into the realms of social history, medical discourse, aesthetic practise and religious observance - its language is one of admiring glances, cruel sniggers, an implacably turned back. The result is an eye-opening, deeply intelligent, groundbreaking account that brings the Victorians back to life and helps us understand how they lived their lives. Gold title * Kathryn Hughes is a highly-regarded social historian and biographer whose work has won major awards, including the James Tait Black Prize (1999). She is one of the best nonfiction writers we have. * VICTORIANS IN PIECES will be illustrated with 8 pages of colour plates. * Her two most recent books, the best-selling The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton (30,500 TCM) and George Eliot: The Last Victorian (10,443 TCM), were turned into major dramas by the BBC. * Kathryn is very media-friendly and routinely presents arts programmes for the BBC on both radio and television.