Ruth Goodman

Who is Ruth Goodman?

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 series Victorian 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 Tudor period. 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.

Ruth has a daughter, Eve, who regularly appears alongside her in her TV appearances.

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.