Biography

Ruth Goodman is a British freelance historian of the early modern period, specialising in offering advice to museums and heritage attractions. She is a specialist in British social history and is a presenter of the BBC educational documentary seriesVictorian Farm, Victorian Pharmacy, Edwardian Farm, Tudor Monastery Farm and Wartime Farm. She also presented the 2005 series Tales from the Green Valley, and occasionally presents features for The One Show. She has been a consultant to the Victoria & Albert Museum and Shakespeare in Love. She is also a member of the Tudor Group, a re-enactment organisation for the Tudorperiod.  As a result of her social history research, she has stopped using detergents in her washing machine, never eats factory farmed food and sometimes cooks on an open wood fire. Goodman participated in the 2011 series of Celebrity Masterchef. On 18 July 2012, Goodman was awarded the Honorary Degree of 'Doctor of the University' from Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln, for her contribution to history education. In Autumn 2013 she starred in Tudor Monastery Farm, a factual BBC2 television series about farming during the Tudor period. In 2014, she appeared in each episode of the Kew on a Plate four-part series, along with Raymond Blanc and Kate Humble. In November and December 2014 Ruth Goodman appeared with Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold in the BBC Two television series Secrets of the Castle in the UK. This television series examined the techniques used by builders of castles in medieval Europe based on the experimental archaeology project at Guédelon Castle in France. In 2015, she acted as expert, alongside presenter Fi Glover on the BBC documentary 24 Hours in the Past.