The Housekeeper's Tale by Tessa Boase
Working as a housekeeper was one of the most prestigious jobs a 19th and early 20th century woman could want - and also one of the toughest. A far cry from the Downton Abbey fiction, the real life Mrs Hughes was up against capricious mistresses, low pay, no job security and gruelling physical labour. Until now, her story has never been told. The Housekeeper's Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women's careers. Delving into secret diaries, unpublished letters and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's most prominent households. There is Dorothy Doar, Regency housekeeper for the obscenely wealthy 1st Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Trentham Hall, Staffordshire. There is Sarah Wells, a deaf and elderly Victorian in charge of Uppark, West Sussex. Ellen Penketh is Edwardian cook-housekeeper at the sociable but impecunious Erddig Hall in the Welsh borders. Hannah Mackenzie runs Wrest Park in Bedfordshire - Britain's first country-house war hospital, bankrolled by playwright J. M. Barrie. And there is Grace Higgens, cook-housekeeper to the Bloomsbury set at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex for half a century - an era defined by the Second World War. Revelatory, gripping and unexpectedly poignant, The Housekeeper's Tale champions the invisible women who ran the English country house.
' TerrificThe depth of research and the elegant writing make this an excellent book. I am full of admiration.' -- Kathryn Hughes 'In this masterly re-telling of their lives and experiences, Tessa Boase breathes vivid life into the forgotten figures of housekeepers. Her forensic research into their stories and her sparkling evocation of their country-house world restores to these working women an individuality often overshadowed by the servant caricature.' -- Lucy Lethbridge 'It is no easy task to find the voice of the professional domestic servant before the 20th century, but the author has done an excellent job piecing together the stories of these five lives through her painstaking research into letters, memoirs and accounts.' Country Life 'The truth is more scandalous than film or fiction - this is one of those social history studies that makes the reader howl with rage.' The Daily Mail "Wiped clean of romantic sheen, this is a fascinating perspective into our upstairs/downstairs history.' Sainsbury's Magazine 'This is a compelling and beautifully written account which tells fascinating stories of some very different, and intriguing, women.' Eastern Daily Press 'Boase has written humanistically, and (perhaps unconsciously) opened a door to a profoundly Feminist Marxist understanding of modern English history.' -- Karen Dahood BookPleasures.com 'Serves not only as an account of those who worked below stairs but also the lords and ladies who were their employers, thus providing an admirable social history.' Scottish Home and Country
Tessa Boase has written three books of social history: The Housekeeper’s Tale (2014); Etta Lemon (first published as Mrs Pankhurst’s Purple Feather in 2018), both by Aurum, and London’s Lost Department Stores (2022). She is a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster, appearing on ‘Secrets of the National Trust’ with Alan Titchmarsh, ‘Tony Robinson’s History of Britain’, and ‘Jay Blades’ Country House Through Time’.
She lives with her family on the Sussex coast.
www.tessaboase.com
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781781310434 |
| ISBN 10 | 1781310432 |
| Title | The Housekeeper's Tale |
| Author | Tessa Boase |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Quarto Publishing PLC |
| Year published | 2014-05-19 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |