What We Did in Bed

A Horizontal History

By: Brian Fagan, Nadia Durrani

Narrated by: Michael Langan

Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

Pulling back the covers on the fascinating, yet often forgotten, history of the bed

Louis XIV ruled France from his bedchamber. Winston Churchill governed Britain from his during World War II. Travelers routinely used to bed down with complete strangers, and whole families shared beds in many preindustrial households. Beds were expensive items—and often for show. Tutankhamun was buried on a golden bed, wealthy Greeks were sent to the afterlife on dining beds, and deceased middle-class Victorians were propped up on a bed in the parlor.

In this sweeping social history that covers the past seventy thousand years, Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani look at the endlessly varied role of the bed through time. This was a place for sex, death, childbirth, storytelling, and sociability as well as sleeping. But who did what with whom, why, and how could vary incredibly depending on the time and place. It is only in the modern era that the bed has transformed into a private, hidden zone, and its rich social history has largely been forgotten.

©2019 Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

Poor production quality hurts listening experience

I loved this book! The only issue was poor production quality. The narrator's voice alternates between two very distinct qualities of recording and that is really distracting and unprofessional. It sounds like they lost half of his takes and had to have him re-record half the book in a closet. I would love to have a better quality version of this audiobook.