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 Using secret diaries, unpublished letters, and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain's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

A great history of every day people

This is a great account of the lives of every day working women. The author did a great job of portraying the lives of housekeepers in a time when the distinction between classes and knowing your place in the order of things was the glue that kept everything together.

Several reviews mention the music being abrupt. I am at a loss as to why. I listened to this using headphones and did not find the musical interludes intrusive or loud. I also did not find the music helpful to the story, so it could have been left out completely.

Very interesting and well performed

I enjoyed Tessa Boase’s voice and performance. This book had more stories in it than I expected and flows very well. I appreciate her time and research into the lives of people that never would’ve expected someone to do so.

Solid Book, bit too much of the authors personal take

I like the content quite a bit, but there is a bit too much of what the author thinks of this and that, her particular attitude toward the situation, almost a bit of an agenda. Plenty of ramping up the drama by reading things in a particular way; things along those lines. If nothing else, it would've been served better by a different narrator. That said, if you can look past these few things, it's a great book.