Diaries of a Time Traveller: an Interview with Polly Nightingale

I begin by posing this question:

[So Polly, traveling back in time is a pretty big deal. What struck you most out of all your many experiences?]

To be honest, the most shocking thing is actually the recent past. Stepping back into the 70’s say, or the 1990’s, places which kind of seem familiar – sometimes even homely – which are in fact jarringly different. It’s not just the technological difference which gets you, or the fashions, but the attitudes and the language. You kind of think that everything’s been pretty much the same right back into the twentieth century, but it only takes a minute to realize both how informal and how inclusive the twenty-first century is compared to the past. People were less tolerant, blunter, more formal…it was definitely a man’s world – publically at least.

[I ask her to expand on this].

In some ways 1980 felt closer to 1880 than 2017 in terms of the prevailing world-view. Much of the past seemed to be more about duty and respect than it is today – all of that seems to be fragmenting now – and I do think there’s a bit of a cycle of rise-and-fall. Societies building themselves up after times of crisis, the importance of morals and public duty, then sliding into cynicism and indifference…and I think we’re seeing a bit of that today, cynicism of authority - but with a nostalgia for the good old days: Keep Calm and Carry On and the Bake Off and all that stuff. We’re living out of the broken down Carcass of the British Empire as Dr Speedwell put in one of his books.

[I suggest that maybe subconsciously we know things are falling apart at the moment and she becomes a little more guarded.]

I think it’s best not to contemplate the future too much – even if we know what’s coming. We need to relax and make the best of the moment. The past was materially simpler, more ecologically friendly and I don’t think that striving to preserve any particular style of living is that appropriate against the backdrop of Deep Time. Once you’ve seen how people have lived from the Stone Age to the Blitz you kind of get a different perspective on things. The way we live now is like a micro-second in the vastness of how long we’ve been around. One day the way we live will be thought of as crude and barbaric.

[I ask her what was the worst thing about the past?]

The toilet facilities [she laughs]…man I should write a book! Seriously though, I’d have to say the harshness of attitudes towards the weak and the outsider and those who didn’t fit…then there’s the acceptance of death and difficulty…the second class status of women...Shall I leave it there [she laughs again]. I mean, people loved and cared but there just wasn’t the time or money to get upset. People just got on with things, accepted their lot in a way people just wouldn’t today, accepted how little they had and the poor way they were treated – women especially. [she hesitates as if to add something, then seems to change her mind] Everyone knew there was no point in getting upset and just accepted shockingly hard lives – physical ailments and awful jobs which we’d just freak out at! I guess they had more of a hope in an afterlife…and complaining was a sign of weakness I guess…well, no…there was just no point in complaining! Life was short and everyone just accepted their lot. All of that stiff-upper-lip stuff seems pretty alien now…having said that, crying in public was pretty big in the middle ages!

[I ask her what else people from our own era would find hard].

Leisure time, privacy and materialism just didn’t exist for sure [I challenge her on the latter] – for the ordinary people anyway – and it’s shocking how all this stuff we now take for granted, like some kind of right, is actually a real extreme luxury. We’re hooked on celebrity and a consumer lifestyle and though the former has always been around it’s only within the last thirty or forty years that the majority of people have had the disposable income to indulge the latter. For much of the past (from the medieval field right up to the 1930’s factory) life was a real battle to survive – to make ends meet… [She breaks off thoughtfully] But people still laughed the same, enjoyed what they had, shared a joke. Maybe sometimes they even seemed more contented.

[I ask her how the past affected her physically.]

It’s more exhausting. You had to be harder - tougher – the cold for one thing wears you out. Life without central heating and double glazing is just something else! I’ve read somewhere we’re the weakest generation that’s ever lived and when you think about the hardships that people lived with…no anaesthetics, no pain killers, labour intensive jobs, manual housework tasks. Man you sleep well!

[And what about the people?]

Most of the people I encountered were open and friendly, willing to show hospitality – whether out of duty or a real desire to share – though to us their horizons would perhaps seemed limited and their attitudes narrow-minded. Did you know that the average medieval peasant saw as many visual images in a lifetime as we see in a single day? The past is also a younger place, though hard lives and exposure to the sun and cold seems to age people prematurely, so at a glance people seem fairly similar - though on average forty would be a ripe old age for working people up until the industrial era. There were a heck of a lot more kids around, many of whom would have never known their grandparents. Family and community were certainly more important. The further back you go the less people seem to think about the individual, or how they felt, or what their needs were. All that self-analysis is a post Freudian kind of thing. It was a more visceral world, people just got on with it. Did what they were supposed to do.

[Finally, I ask her what she’d recommend to take into the past.]

An open mind… [She laughs] And a first-aid-kit for sure…a seriously good coat maybe? Dairymilk?

[And what did you miss the most?]

Coffee, chocolate and hot showers, no question!

With a great many thanks to Polly Nightingale. All errors are purely my own.