Diamonds at Dinner - My Life as a Lady's Maid in a 1930s Stately Home

Author: Tim Tate
Publisher: Kings Road Publishing
ISBN: 1782196102
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
A fascinating memoir of life as a lady's maid in a big house in the 1930s, covering the beauty of the house, the housing of royals escaping the Nazis, the hard work of staff, and the experience of joining the army to serve a Countess Hilda Newman was a maid to Lady Coventry at the Worcestershire stately home of Croome Court in the 1930s. In her fascinating memoir of life below the stairs (as well as glimpses from inside the big house), she reveals what it was like living and working in the 18th Century Neo-Palladian mansion surrounded by parkland landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. During World War II Croome Court housed the exiled Dutch Royal Family, who escaped the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. It was also the top-secret RAF base Defford, where radar was developed and repairs were carried out on aircraft fighting in the Battle of Britain. Hilda remembers life both upstairs and down, from the grand long gallery designed by Robert Adam and the tapestry room (since removed and transferred to the Metropolitan Museum in New York), to the hard labor demanded of serving staff and what it was like in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the women's branch of the British Army, which she joined to serve the Countess in 1940.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Author: Shirley Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Castles
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.

A Heart So Big

Author: Rio Hogarty
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241967910
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
ONE WOMAN. 140 NEEDY CHILDREN. A FOSTER MOTHER'S INSPIRING LIFE STORY. Rio Hogarty has always opened her home and her heart to children in need. And she has never stopped. A Heart So Big is the astonishing and moving story of Rio's life and how she has tried to make a difference. It includes stories of trauma, Rio has rescued children from the direst of circumstances, and her own heartache, but also the humour and love of a life spent fostering over 140 children. A heart-warming and uplifting account for fans ofMollie Moran's Aprons and Silver Spoons. 'She is instinctively protective of children in need, and doesn't take "no" for an answer. She's also fearless.' The Herald

The Belly of Paris

Author: Émile Zola
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 383

Book Description
The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris) is the third novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart, first published in 1873. It is a novel of the teeming life which surrounds the great central markets of Paris. The book was originally translated into English by Henry Vizetelly and published in 1888 under the title Fat and Thin. After Vizetelly's imprisonment for obscene libel the novel was one of those revised and expurgated by his son, Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. The heroine is Lisa Quenu, a daughter of Antoine Macquart. She has become prosperous, and with prosperity her selfishness has increased. Her brother-in-law Florent had escaped from penal servitude in Cayenne and lived for a short time in her house, but she became tired of his presence and ultimately denounced him to the police. Émile Zola (1840 – 1902) was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France.

Looneyspoons

Author: Janet Podleski
Publisher: Perigee Books
ISBN: 9780399525636
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In an effort to show that healthful, low-fat cooking can be fun, the Podleski sisters use jokes, cartoons and humor as they present 150 low-fat recipes, common-sense strategies for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and stocking fat stats about everyday foods. They also present information on making smarter food choices at home, the grocery and restaurants.192 pp.

The Housekeeper's Tale

Author: Tessa Boase
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781312680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

Book Description
Working as a housekeeper was one of the most prestigious jobs a nineteenth and early twentieth 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. Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONE

Shopgirls

Author: Pamela Cox
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0099594684
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Book Description
Published to tie in with the forthcoming BBC series, Shopgirls is a nostalgic, sweeping history full of the life stories of the women behind the counters of Britain's most famous -- and not so famous -- stores. Shopgirls should be heroines, as celebrated as steelworkers in the Industrial Revolution. A million of us were shop assistants by the turn of the twentieth century and since then retail has grown exponentially to become Britain's largest area of economic activity. But the young women at the heart of this economic and cultural revolution, the shop assistants themselves, have largely been ignored. Shopgirls will tell the story of the lives of the girls who have worked behind the counters of our nation's shops from the drapery stores of the 1860s when young women's employment outside the home was taking off, through the Edwardian era's tumultuous social upheavals, two world wars and all the way to the working class revolution of the 1960s and the shock of the Biba bombing. This lively and ambitious book sets out to uncover the shopgirls' life stories, work cultures and economic contributions in a way never done before.

Aprons and Silver Spoons

Author: Mollie Moran
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0718197186
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
'IF YOU LOVE DOWNTON, THIS IS RIGHT UP YOUR STREET! Closer If you liked Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, it's time to discover the true story in Mollie Moran's Sunday Times charming bestselling memoir of life as a 1930s kitchen maid. When young Mollie became a 'skivvy' in a stately London townhouse aged just 14, she quickly learned that she would need a large amount of elbow grease and a sense of humour. Through Mollie's eyes we are offered a fascinating glimpse into London's invisible 'downstairs', a world that has long-since vanished: cooking huge roast dinners, polishing doorknobs, scrubbing steps - and covering up her employers' scandals. Going to dances with her fellow servants and flirting with Harrods' errand boys, she had no idea that the oncoming war in 1939 would change her world, and that of those she served, forever... Discover the real hardships and rewards for a pre-war domestic servant in Mollie Moran's charming memoir. __________ 'This evocative memoir . . . provides a fascinating insight into a world that has long since disappeared' Sun 'A vivid, entertaining and human glimpse into life in service during the 1930s complete with recipes, tips and photos' My Weekly

Over a Hot Stove

Author: Flo Wadlow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780749015718
Category : Country life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
For those eagerly tuning-in to watch Downton Abbey, this is a first-hand account of life working in the grand country houses of the last century.

The Sorcerer's Apprentices

Author: Lisa Abend
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451626622
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
"Kitchen Confidential" meets "Heat" in the first behind-the-scenes portrait of the world's best restaurant and the aspiring chefs who toil to make it so exceptional. Elected best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine an unprecedented five times, El Bulli is the laboratory of Ferran Adria, the maverick creator of molecular gastronomy. Behind each of the thirty or more courses that make up a meal at El Bulli is a small army of young cooks who do the work of executing Adria's vision in exchange for nothing more than the chance to learn at his hands. Granted unprecedented access to this guild system, Lisa Abend follows the thirty-five stagiaries of the 2009 season as they struggle to master the grueling hours, cutting-edge techniques, and interpersonal tensions that come with working at the most revered restaurant on earth.