The Housekeeper's Tale
The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
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The Housekeeper's Tale
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Narrated by:
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Tessa Boase
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By:
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Tessa Boase
About this listen
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 Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's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 BoaseWhat listeners say about The Housekeeper's Tale
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 29-02-2024
Outstanding social history
I love the histories of ordinary, everyday people- the type that has to be teased from limited sources and a reading of the spaces between the historical records. This is just such a collection. Painstakingly researched and beautifully written. I loved this book. The only downside was not having the photos spoken of in the text, which I assume was included in the printed edition.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vanessa Young
- 14-02-2019
Fascinating book
If you enjoy social history, you will get a lot from this deep dive into housekeeping and the relationship of servant to master between the 18th and 21st centuries. A well read and carefully researched look at a group of women who are under represented in the historical record.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah White
- 20-01-2022
absolutely brilliant
I couldn't stop listening to this to this book. Fascinating insight into the lives of five women who worked as housekeepers from the early 1800's to the 1950's plus a modern housekeeper. Beautifully written, researched and read. I was quite disappointed when I finished the book as I didn't want it to end!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sue
- 16-03-2021
fascinating
Tessa has done a marvellous job of reconstructing (from old letters, accounts and diary entries, and in some cases memories) the stories of several housekeepers of large English country houses, from Victorian times to modern times. Easy to listen to. Interesting stories which draw you into their worlds. Well narrated.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymon
- 16-07-2019
Returning
I was disappointed with the book all round. I kept wondering when the story was about to start. There seemed to be repeated ‘introductions’.
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1 person found this helpful