The Housekeeper's Tale

The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House

By: Tessa Boase

Narrated 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 featured capricious mistresses, low pay, no job security, and grueling physical labor. 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. Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's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.

Dorothy Doar was Regency housekeeper for the obscenely wealthy first Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Trentham Hall, Staffordshire. Sarah Wells, a deaf and elderly Victorian (mother to H.G. Wells), was in charge of Uppark, West Sussex. Ellen Penketh was Edwardian cook-housekeeper at the impecunious Erddig Hall in the Welsh borders. Hannah Mackenzie ran Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, Britain's first country-house war hospital. Grace Higgens was cook-housekeeper to the Bloomsbury set at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex for half a century.

Revelatory, gripping and unexpectedly poignant, The Housekeeper's Tale champions the invisible women behind the English country house.

New version - now with no music.

©2014 Tessa Boase (P)2016 Tessa Boase

Good book

I loved the story of the First Lady .... very interesting. Worth giving a listen to.

Good descriptions of the characters

This story was worth my time to listen to. Its sad to here how the people were ignored

Fascinating

Riveting, informative, so well written that mundane details become exciting. I almost passed it up due to comments about the music- in total, music was about 1 minute of the entire recording, and was only for a few seconds at a time, so not a factor for me at all. The narrator was excellent and I am very happy I purchased this one.

Niche market

It was OK. 3.5 stars. Probably the most interesting part came at the end talking about a modern Housekeeper's responsibilities and the interview with her. The rest of it was a different version of similar biographies of those "in service".

excellent from start to finish

Wonderfully researched and told. I prefer narration by author, and this one is perfect. Author's voice and inflection add a lot to the story. Well done from start to finish.