Lucy Worsley: “It Annoys Me If People Use The Expression ‘Dumbing Down’”
Historian, presenter and author Lucy Worsley thinks there is more than one way to awaken children’s interest in reading…
- by Lucy Worsley
The first book I read was called Naughty Amelia Jane Again, by Enid Blyton. Amelia Jane herself was a doll who bullied the other toys in a nursery, and I don’t think that anyone today would give their children books to read in which the characters include a naughty golliwog. In fact, I’m not sure my parents particularly approved of this book even then.
I picked it up during a family visit to a bookshop when we were staying at my granny’s, and as no one knew that I knew how to read, no one noticed that I was reading it until I had finished. Then, I believe, my parents paid for it because they felt a bit bad that I’d consumed it for nothing.
When I was a bit older I began to read Jean Plaidy’s stories for children, and I especially loved The Young Elizabeth and The Young Mary Queen of Scots; both books I wish I’d written. As well as being very entertaining, they were a painless way of absorbing Tudor history, and I can recite the names of Mary Queen of Scots’s servants, the Four Marys, for example, to this day – or describe the opening scene of The Young Elizabeth, which takes place at Hampton Court and features the christening of the Princess Elizabeth’s baby brother, Edward, in 1536. I know now, although I didn’t realise it then, that Jean Plaidy was basing her stories on real historical documents, and that many of her details are true.
My 1973 copy of The Young Elizabeth has a picture of Hampton Court Palace on its cover. And it’s certainly one of the reasons, when I grew up, that I wanted to work so much as a curator at Hampton Court Palace, a job that I’ve done for the last ten years.
In fact, eighteen months ago I actually got to take part in the re-staging of Edward VI’s christening procession in the rooms where it really happened at Hampton Court. This involved persuading 100 of my colleagues who work at the palace to dress up (the men in tights!) in order to recreate this magnificent Tudor court ceremony for a television programme on BBC Two that I co-presented with David Starkey.
Those historical novels of my childhood have always remained so vivid to me that I wanted to have my own go at enticing a new generation of kids into the past. That was my motivation for writing Eliza Rose. In my version of the Tudor court, we visit the reign of Henry VIII, and find out in particular what happened to his fifth, teenage, wife, Katherine Howard. In fact, I propose a new reason for why she had her head cut off.
If even one of my readers decides, as a result, that she too wants to become a curator at Hampton Court Palace in a future life, I’ll be utterly delighted. My goal in all my work as a historian or as the presenter of history documentaries is to be the thin end of the wedge; to entice just a few people over the threshold of getting interested in history.
I know that this softly-softly approach of mine does actually work, too, because one of the great pleasures of my life is getting the occasional letter from someone who tells me that they started out being completely uninterested in history, but then watched a documentary, read a book, attended a course, and ended up getting a history degree from somewhere like the Open University!
When I was little, I actually worried that I spent too much time reading, and tried to set myself a limit of only two hours a day. My mum, though, has had a career in teaching literacy, so I know from her that sometimes you need games, or props, or more active ways of getting people to enjoy read. My sister-in-law is an editor of books for little boys, a tough market to crack. My brother and my stepfather have both featured in titles that she has edited, about skateboarding and astronomy respectively.
So, working hard to get people to enjoy reading is a mind-set that has stuck with me as a curator. Even when you’re designing an exhibition, you’ve got to think what families, or that bored person who’s been dragged along by their partner, might get out of it. It annoys me if people use the expression ‘dumbing down’ when they look at the efforts museum curators or television programmes might make to draw people in. It’s an expression that really means: ‘I’m too clever to need your efforts, therefore they’re pointless’. But nothing is pointless if it helps people to learn.
Historic Royal Palaces is an independent charity that looks after the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle. It helps everyone explore the story of how monarchs and people have shaped society, in some of the greatest palaces ever built. It raises all its own funds and depends on the support of our visitors, members, donors, sponsors and volunteers.
