The story of The Housekeeper's Tale follows the lives of five women to delve into the secret existence of these powerful yet invisible women who ran our great English country houses; from the 19th- to the mid 20th-century this was the most important professional job an uneducated woman could aspire to; the female equivalent of the butler.
The story of The Housekeeper's Tale follows the lives of five women to delve into the secret existence of these powerful yet invisible women who ran our great English country houses; from the 19th- to the mid 20th-century this was the most important professional job an uneducated woman could aspire to; the female equivalent of the butler.
As a working class woman in the 19th century, you could do no better. The housekeeper of a great English country house might manage a hundred servants, and a domestic budget on par with a small bank. She had no need of a home of her own - or, for that matter, a husband. But for all her importance, she has been invisible to history.
This unique history tracks the housekeeper's fortunes during a period of relentless social change. She enters the book haughtily, in black bombazine and whalebone stays; she exits a lone figure in a nylon housecoat, down on arthritic knees with a scrubbing brush.
None of these women, mulling over the day in their parlours, would have imagined their stories worth telling - but The Housekeeper's Tale proves otherwise. In five gripping accounts, Tessa Boase brings to life the heroic women who ran Britain's country houses.
“'Wiped clean of romantic sheen, this is a fascinating perspective into our upstairs/downstairs history.'”
'A fluent study…Boase builds a deep, rich account of their individual lives, returning from the archive with some telling tales.' -- Kathryn Hughes Times Literary Supplement
‘A gripping popular history.’ -- Bee Wilson Sunday Telegraph
'The truth is more scandalous than film or fiction – this is one of those social history studies that makes the reader howl with rage.' -- Roger Lewis Daily Mail
'It’s fascinating stuff, moving too, written with great brio and such a light but confident touch, which makes it all the more enjoyable.' -- Virginia Nicholson
‘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
‘Wiped clean of romantic sheen, this is a fascinating perspective into our upstairs/downstairs history.’
Sainsbury's MagazineTESSA BOASE read English at Lincoln College, Oxford, then worked as a voiceover artist, a children's scriptwriter, and as a commissioning editor of The DailyandSunday Telegraph andThe Daily Mail. She was co-founder of the Salon des Amis (a London salon of ideas, debate and entertainment), and more recently restored a ruin in Italy's Sabine Hills where she produces olive oil.
The story of The Housekeeper's Tale follows the lives of five women to delve into the secret existence of these powerful yet invisible women who ran our great English country houses; from the 19th- to the mid 20th-century this was the most important professional job an uneducated woman could aspire to; the female equivalent of the butler. As a working class woman in the 19th century, you could do no better. The housekeeper of a great English country house might manage a hundred servants, and a domestic budget on par with a small bank. She had no need of a home of her own - or, for that matter, a husband. But for all her importance, she has been invisible to history. This unique history tracks the housekeeper's fortunes during a period of relentless social change. She enters the book haughtily, in black bombazine and whalebone stays; she exits a lone figure in a nylon housecoat, down on arthritic knees with a scrubbing brush. None of these women, mulling over the day in their parlours, would have imagined their stories worth telling - but The Housekeeper's Tale proves otherwise. In five gripping accounts, Tessa Boase brings to life the heroic women who ran Britain's country houses.
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