Literary Lunch with Margarette Lincoln

Location: Christopher Wren Dining Room, Ye Olde Watling Pub, 29 Watling Road, London EC4M 9BR

Join us for our next Literary Lunch at the historic Ye Olde Watling pub where we will hear from Freeman Margarette Lincoln who will be discussing her new book 'Perfection: 400 Years of Women's Quest for Beauty'.

A colourful account of women’s health, beauty, and cosmetic aids, from stays and corsets to today’s viral trends Victorian women ate arsenic to achieve an ideal, pale complexion, while in the 1790s balloon corsets were all the rage, designed to make the wearer appear pregnant. Women of the eighteenth century applied blood from a black cat’s tail to problem skin, while doctors in the 1880s promoted woollen underwear to keep colds at bay. Beautification and the pursuit of health may seem all-consuming today, but their history is long and fantastically varied. Ranging across the last four hundred years, Margarette Lincoln examines women’s health and beauty in fascinating detail. Through first-hand accounts and reports of physicians, quacks, and advertising, Lincoln captures women’s lived experience of consuming beauty products, and the excitement―and trauma―of adopting the latest fashion trends. Considering everything from body sculpture, diet, and exercise to skin, teeth, and hair, Perfection is a vibrant account of women’s body-fashioning―and shows how intimately these practices are related to community and identity throughout history.

Freeman Margarette Lincoln was a visiting researcher at the University of Portsmouth and is curator emerita of the National Maritime Museum. She is the author of numerous books, including London and the Seventeenth Century and Trading in War, which was shortlisted for the Wolfson Prize.

Georgina Brown is Manager of The Wilbur&Niso Smith Foundation. Before moving to London, Georgina worked in Dorset, Russia and the United States. Georgina is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow. She holds an Undergraduate degree in Writing, Directing and Performance from The University of York, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy from The University of Leeds. She is a graduate of The Berkshire Hills Internship Program, an intensive arts management program at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Prior to life at the Foundation, Georgina has worked in the fundraising ranks of a symphony orchestra and may be the only person to have ever run away from the circus.

The cost of this lunchtime event, which starts at 1.00pm, is just £35 and includes a traditional two-course lunch, as well as the after-lunch interview with Margarette Lincoln and Georgina Brown. We are restricted to 35 attendees, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Books will also be available to preorder and get signed on the day!