At Home: A Short History of Private Life was published by Doubleday (UK) in May 2010 and uses Bryson’s own home — an old Norfolk rectory — as the framework for a history of domestic life. Each chapter takes a room (the hall, the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, the garden) and explores the history of everything that happens in it: how we came to eat what we eat, sleep as we sleep, wash as we wash, and furnish as we furnish.
The method is pure Bryson: following curiosity wherever it leads, so that a chapter on the kitchen includes the history of spices, the invention of refrigeration, the development of canned food, and the career of Mrs. Beeton. The result is a book that makes the reader look at their own house with fresh eyes.
The Bryson Method
At Home represents the purest distillation of the Bryson method: take something ordinary, follow its history to unexpected places, and return with a collection of stories that make the familiar strange. A bathroom leads to the history of hygiene, which leads to the germ theory of disease, which leads to the life of Joseph Lister. Each digression is a miniature essay in itself.
Collecting At Home
First edition (Doubleday, London, 2010): Boards with dust jacket.
Approximate market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $40–$100
- Very good: $15–$40
Projected values (2026–2036): Moderate appreciation. The book pairs naturally with A Short History of Nearly Everything for collectors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the rectory? Bryson’s home in Norfolk, England — a former Church of England rectory built in 1851. It serves as the book’s organising framework but the history extends far beyond any single building.