Margaret Willes

In the seventeenth century, most English households had gardens. These gardens were not merely ornamental; even the most elaborate and fashionable gardens had areas set aside for growing herbs, fruit, vegetables, and flowers for domestic use. Meanwhile, more modest households considered a functional garden to be a vital tool for the survival of the house and family. The seventeenth century...

An intimate portrait of two pivotal Restoration figures during one of the most dramatic periods of English history The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn by Margaret Willes offers the first full portrait of the friendship between two celebrated English diarists, Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, transforming our understanding of their times. These extraordinary men were not just...

The extraordinary story of St. Paul’s Churchyard—the area of London that was a centre of social and intellectual life for more than a millennium. St. Paul’s Cathedral stands at the heart of London, an enduring symbol of the city. Less well known is the neighbourhood at its base that hummed with life for over a thousand years, becoming a theatre...

The first complete history of Southwark, London's stubbornly independent community over the Thames Southwark's fortunes have always been tied to those of the City of London across the river. But from its founding in Roman times through to flourishing in the medieval era, the Borough has always fiercely asserted its independence. A place of licence, largely free of the City's...

This magnificently illustrated people's history celebrates the extraordinary feats of cultivation by the working class in Britain, even if the land they toiled, planted, and loved was not their own. Spanning more than four centuries, from the earliest records of the labouring classes in the country to today, Margaret Willes's research unearths lush gardens nurtured outside rough workers' cottages and...

When Falstaff calls upon the sky to rain potatoes in The Merry Wives of Windsor, he is highlighting the late sixteenth-century belief that the exotic vegetable, recently introduced to England from the Americas, was an aphrodisiac. In Romeo and Juliet, Lady Capulet calls for quinces to make pies for the marriage feast of her daughter. This fruit was traditionally connected...

Beautifully illustrated throughout, this book shows the social, cultural and historical importance of plants and their role in both formal and folk medicine.Herbs have been used for centuries to cure all manner of ailments. They were especially important as home remedies for the many people without access to a trained physician before the advent of affordable healthcare. In the Middle...