The upper classes lived well in the good old days. Except, of course, for the famines, the pirates, the bandits, the plagues, the shortness of life and the imminence of ever present death. And no medical treatment, no antiseptic childbirth, no hot baths, no coffee, no chocolate and no tobacco. The last four decided her on the advantages of the twentieth century.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer

Phryne Fisher, Book 16, Murder in the Dark, ch. 16 (2006)
    (Source)

The book is set in 1928.