A review by icysedgwick
Victorian Pharmacy: Rediscovering Home Remedies and Recipes by Jane Eastoe, Ruth Goodman

4.0

Fascinating book that explores the role of the druggist in Victorian society. The book accompanies a BBC series but it's an easy and informative read even if you haven't seen it. Discussions around disease, public health, medical advances and poisons are interspersed with recipes and photos from the series. The toxic recipes are marked with a skull and crossbones, although the rarity or illegality of the ingredients would make them difficult to concoct, while some of the other remedies sound remarkably familiar (e.g. dill water). The grammar occasionally leaves a bit to be desired and it could have used a last copyedit before publication but this a minor niggle for an otherwise interesting book.