Lucy Worsley
@Lucy_Worsley
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'She seems to think she's some sort of thinking man's strumpet. She most certainly is not.' - a man on the internet.
London
Joined February 2011
Man on train was annoyingly peering over at my laptop screen. ‘Keep going!’ he said, ‘just think, you might get it published one day.’ I gave him the Death Stare of a woman who has published ten books.
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My dad: ‘Did you hear what happened at Glastonbury? A chant was started against Boris Johnson by that excellent rapper.’ Us: ‘Which rapper, dad? Surely you don’t know the names of any excellent rappers?’ Him: ‘I certainly do, it was Spotify.’.
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In 2009, a lady came to a conference we had at Hampton Court, about the life of Henry VIII. She sat quietly at the back making notes. She was reputed to be a novelist. I did not know then that a goddess was walking among us.
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I am unutterably delighted to learn that when a Portuguese person wants to express the thought ‘a bad workman blames his tools,’ she says instead that ‘A BAD DANCER BLAMES HIS TROUSERS.’.
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May I take a tiny moment to celebrate the fact that this evening I'm meeting a friend in a park in order stealthily to consume alcohol? It's the teenage life I never had because of being too nerdy.
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Speeding on happily towards the big five-oh, reached 49 today 🎂
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1. Dipped into my notifications 2. Saw someone calling me a miserable hag 3. Dipped out again & went back to my cup of tea and my book about Charlotte Bronte. We miserable hags know how to have a good time.
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Every morning after I've had a programme on @BBCTwo my inbox gets delightfully full of messages from men who didn't like my lipstick. It makes me feel like it's 1922 and I'm being castigated by Captain Hastings for being 'fast'.
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Greatly amused by the posh man on the train whose foghorn voice was louder than he realised:. 'Darling! Is that Lucy Worsley? F*CKING HELL.'.
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‘Dear Lucy, your hair on TV is so unflattering, it makes you seem so sad, unfortunately looks mean more than talent or brains.’. Hmm. Rather devastating critique of my hair. I notice he still watched the show, though, so he must have fallen for my lovely bubbly personality 😉.
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My film crew and I once got stopped by the police for acting suspiciously near Buckingham Palace. We got out of jail by my persuading the officers that a genuine terrorist probably wouldn't have brought along a full-size portrait of Anne Boleyn.
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Thank you dear friends for your birthday wishes. Happy to be 21 at last.
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How pleased do you think I look with my new hair? 'Cat's got the cream' hardly begins to cover it, I suggest. Thank you so much, @emmasleon!
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Happy Christmas to all my followers, from me and my little stripey friend.
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'Shall I throw away these leftovers?'. 'No - it's best practice to put them in the fridge, leave them there for a week, and THEN throw them away.'.
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STILL my favourite letter of complaint ever: ‘I used to enjoy the programmes of Dr Worsley, an elegant & apparently well-educated lady, UNTIL I heard her refer to a jigsaw puzzle as a jigsaw.’.
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Dear followers, thank you so much for your delightful company in 2022! I wish you health and happiness for the new year round the corner.
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Nurse giving me a blood test: 'Do you work? What do you do?' Me: 'Historian.' Him: 'WOW I love it when I get a patient with a WEIRD PROFESSION.'.
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COURT CIRCULAR: after her investiture by the Prince of Wales, Dr L Worsley was escorted from the palace by her dearest & nearest & taken for a slap-up lunch.
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Young folk! This is what it's like to turn fifty, from One Who Now Knows:.1. It's not very nice.2. Family and friends make it a whole lot nicer.3. Spending the day at Hampton Court Palace really helps too 😃
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Cutest video ever of the new statue of AGATHA CHRISTIE outside Wallingford Museum! The dog won't be convinced she's not alive. Huge thanks to the lovely people who donated to Wallingford Museum, it's much appreciated by Judy the curator, Ned and the other volunteers and me 🙏
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Delighted to discover that I am in fact 45 years old today. (I thought it was 46 so have gained a whole extra year of life.).
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I told my friend the King greeted me with the words 'ah, the Eminent Historian,' and she said 'is that notable? I thought that was just a regular day in your life.' I think I may have given her a misleading impression of my routine 😉
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My relatives are competing to make me recuperative puddings please give my sister in law's lemon sponge at least as many likes as my mum's bread and butter or there will be big trouble
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I've been a bit quiet on here because of not being very well. I've been cured (hopefully) by the absolutely scientifically medically verified treatment of my mum's bread and butter pudding.
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Dear followers! Thank you so much for your company in 2023. I'm looking forward to sharing lots more history fun with you from tomorrow in a new year (and for me, a whole new decade)🤗
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Here’s my best heckle ever. Me: ‘yes, & the Georgians invented hot air balloons & pleasure gardens & something else only the mums & dads here will know what it is, it’s called gin.’ Tiny girl, at full volume: ‘WE KNOW WHAT GIN IS.’.
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Dear followers, thank you for your company in 2021! Here’s to more history adventures together in 2022.
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Been told I can only continue to watch #WolfHall if I desist from shouting out the locations.
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I did enjoy this. Particularly the bit about the ‘unheard of’ university.
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'coming with us to lunch today, Lucy?'.'nope'.'come on, don't be a misery!'.'It's not that, I'm afraid I've had a better offer 😉'
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You haven’t heard from me recently because I am CYCLING ROUND AN ISLAND IN SWEDEN & LIVING MY BEST MOOMIN LIFE
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An expression of solidarity from me this morning to all my colleagues in the arts, museums & heritage sector facing the loss of work, income, routine & even their vocation. This Twitter account has been described as ‘relentlessly upbeat’ but the person behind it is sometimes sad.
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Well I am off to Trafalgar Square this morning to say thank you to both the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. OTD #Suffragette100 #Vote100
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The thirteenth-century Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, late on a dark January afternoon. Imagine what it must be like when the sun is shining.
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Turns out that when you start work at 05.30 to beat the heat, you feel that by the time 09.30 rolls round you need a bar of chocolate and a can of coke. Not a great new habit to have formed, is it?!
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I was so pleased & proud my A-level history teacher Mr King (he’ll never have a first name to me) came to hear me give a talk last night. To my hardworking inspiring history-teacher followers: please do remember that some of your pupils will be hugely grateful in later life!.
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A little boy asked if I was a member of the Royal Family, so I told him I was the Duchess of Worsley. He was ever so pleased.
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Some kind followers have sent me birthday greetings today - thank you, ever so much, and wishing you plenty of love, joy and cocktails in return.
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I'm very sorry to tell you that on his second birthday yesterday, Bertie caused much anxiety by leaving the house at dawn and not returning until nearly midnight. And when he did show up, he appeared to be drunk.
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NEWS! .I'm both sad & excited to say that at the end of 2024, I'll be leaving my job as Chief Curator at @HRP_palaces! I've had the best colleagues in history for 21 years, but I want to spend more time with my friends at @LWLadyKillers and our growing #LadyKillers community❤️.
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Waitrose: 'I need to see proof of age before you can buy that wine.'.Nice old gent behind me in queue who watches @BBCFour: 'I don't wish to be ungallant, but she's DEFINITELY over 25.'.
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Well, today's the day I am officially transmogrified from CHIEF CURATOR AT THE CHARITY HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES to AMBASSADOR FOR THE CHARITY HISTORIC ROYAL PALACES. I am therefore henceforth to be addressed as Her Excellency. Thank you.*
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Now I’ve travelled by this sort of train I fear I simply can’t go back to normal. They’ll just have to upgrade the service to Hampton Court with carriages like this or I won’t be able to get to work any more.
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I promised myself I didn't have to go for a run this morning. But as terrorists appear to be targeting my jogging route I felt I had to.
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I love Scottish weather. The forecast for Edinburgh today had a symbol for a special kind of rain I’d never even seen before.
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During our zoom cocktails last night our friends’ children came downstairs and asked us to keep the noise down.
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I know my followers appreciate a bit of library, so here’s a beauty for you. It’s the one at the @royalacademy.
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Reminiscing today about Lowly Worm, my favourite character from the Richard Scarry books. I remember seeing the blanket on Lowly Worm’s bed which had the letters LW all over it, and thinking, ‘YES, that’s what us people with the initials LW are like, we are the BEST people.’
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'Oh dear,' I said, 'I seem to have brought my Oyster card, rather than my credit card. And I seem to have chosen rather an expensive drink too. Could you possibly pay?'.My brother rolled his eyes. 'You know you pulled the exactly same trick last time, don't you?' he said.
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An amazingly ship! The VASA, which sank on its very first voyage from Stockholm in 1628 & survived in the mud to be rescued 98% complete in the twentieth century.
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Just been sacked from my job of helping to wrap the Christmas presents. ‘All you’ve done so far is read the books you’re giving to other people.’.
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I think so many years have passed that I can now admit that once in a rush I ran out of Hampton Court & accidentally checked my own house keys into the key safe. Didn't realise until I got home and tried to open my front door with - oops - the keys to Hampton Court Palace.*
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getting the feeling my obituary is going to read ‘she worked hard, she warmed hearts, but she had one fatal flaw. IT WAS HER EYEBROWS’.
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When I was little, my life goals included becoming a nun, a spy, or a witch. Got closest with witch. Halloween, 1977.
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Struck by responses to the approach of the Black Death in 1348. 'Some lived in isolation from everyone, refused to speak to outsiders, & entertained themselves . others drank heavily, lived life to the full, and shrugged the whole thing off as an enormous joke' (Boccaccio).
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Ok, 2020, it’s over. I’m definitively breaking up with you in favour of 1940. (I do admit that this is mainly for the hats.)
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I think I have worked out why this red coat was so cheap in the sale. Today a random person on the street shouted out 'THAT'S THE REDDEST COAT I'VE EVER SEEN'
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If ever I’m feeling a bit down, I cheer myself up by reminding myself that someone on the internet once described me as a ‘regal ass white lady’. REGAL ASS WHITE LADY.
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I might have panic-bought a pina colada cocktail in a can.
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Is it correct to serve bread and butter pudding with custard?
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I asked this knight why he was looking a bit crestfallen and sad, and he admitted that the other knights had been mean to him.
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Very nearly got locked into King's College Chapel last night. I was doing a drawing of the ceiling, a fairly engrossing thing to do as you can probably imagine, and didn't hear the call to get out.
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The @TowerOfLondon this evening looking every inch the magnificent drama queen she totally is.
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Nice checkout lady: 'ooh you're the lady off the telly aren't you?'. Me: 'thank you for watching, thank you thank you so grateful'. Nice checkout lady: 'it's okay, I've only watched you just the once'.
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May I try to raise a Sunday smile with this picture of my brother’s hen Weedy chatting with her ceramic friend?
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Here's a slightly out-of-focus lady historian, who's been taken out for a lovely birthday lunch, and who wants to say thank you for some lovely birthday greetings you lovely people🙏
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It’s 26 August, Prince Albert’s birthday. As he’s not around to enjoy it, I shall be accepting any congratulations or even presents on his behalf.
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In a cafe near Buckingham Palace it’s seriously entertaining watching a groups of Americans encountering MUSHY PEAS for the first time. I feel I’m getting my revenge at last for the harrowing experience of GRITS.
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I have to send a photo for a visa application do you think this one will do
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It feels like autumn has begun in London. ‘Now then Lucy,’ said a colleague, ‘you must be doing something interesting later on today, dressed as a wartime lady spy like that in your trenchcoat gloves and beret.’. I had to explain that they are just my clothes.
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I took this week off work to get on with some writing. Inevitably my house is the cleanest it's ever been.
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I look pretty pleased to be Anne of Cleves in 1541, don’t I? You would too if you’d made it out alive from your marriage to the old Grumpster and been given your own resplendent palace in Richmond.
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'Hello Lucy,' said my boss this morning, 'I see you've come in your discreet coat.'. It really was COLD at Hampton Court today.
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Crew greatly amused by the man who just walked past and shouted ‘Love your shows, Kirsty.’.
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Celebrating my first dose of Astra Zeneca received this lunchtime. Cake will help me make even more antibodies, right?
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A first look at Marie Antoinette’s bedchamber at Versailles, re-opened this weekend after three years of restoration work.
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Look at the marvellous mist rising from the moat at Hever Castle this frosty morning!
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Sad to say my brother’s rescue hen Toodles has died and been cremated by the vet after a short but happy post-factory life. I asked for a picture to remember Toodles by, but got a rather more literal response than I expected.
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'Your eyebrows detract from your presentation' - I love the zanier messages that land in my inbox.
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Lady on street: 'ooh, I do like your. '. Me: smiling enthusiastically, poised to say 'thank you so much for watching!'. Lady: '. coat.'. Me: oh
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Queen’s Stairs from the riverbank at the Tower of London. This is where Anne Boleyn disembarked from her barge for both her coronation and her execution. A thrill to walk in her footsteps.
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I raise a glass to you, dear followers, and thank you for your company in 2017.
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Here's a lady about to sign 3000 copies of um, this new book about Agatha Christie she's written which she just have have mentioned here before.
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I’ve been reading my brother’s teenage diary in the hope of finding some loving and admiring things he might have said about me. So far, the one single mention of me is ‘we had to stop the car for Lucy to be sick.’.
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I did the government careers test which said I should be an office manager which is actually . erm . what I am. Although the office is 500 years old. Had been hoping for trapeze artiste, though.
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It’s hard for me to describe just how much I value the chance to creep round Hampton Court Palace all by myself after visiting hours.
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Never have my ears been so much in demand. My fleecey hat, my spectacles and my facemask are all competing for their services. What a time to be an ear!.
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I could completely pass for the virile and exceptionally handsome eighteen-year-old King Henry VIII in 1509, don’t you think?
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Disappointing that I was not selected to represent Great Britain in the Paris Olympics at breakdancing @TeamGB
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