The Housekeeper's Tale: The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House

The Housekeeper’s Tale is a non-fiction book. It is sort of a group biography of five housekeepers at five large country houses between the years of 1820 and 1971 with an epilog detailing sort of a ‘day in the life’ of a modern housekeeper in 2013. It is well researched and makes an excellent reference for anybody interested in the historical position of the housekeeper. The author also does a good job of bringing the housekeepers in her tale to life.It also tells the stories of five very different women who yet somehow have much in common.Each of the housekeepers whose stories are told in this book is unusual in some way. None of them is quite the stereotypical housekeeper you would normally expect. But it is precisely because of the trouble they got into or the unusual habits they had that they have managed to leave some record of themselves for a historical researcher to find. They had unusual mistresses as well, and that is another reason they have left traces of themselves.Dorthy Doar of Trentham Hall in the early 1800s and Sarah Wells of Uppark in the late 1800s were both married women. And it was unusual for married women to work as housekeepers in the 19th century. Their being married led in each case to why they were remembered, although the specific reasons were quite different. In Dorthy Doar’s case, a request for a six-weeks’ leave to have a baby led, after some turmoil, to her being expelled, and not in a nice way. After she left Trentham there is no further record to be found of her anywhere.Sarah Wells, on the other hand, had been employed as a lady’s maid for her mistress (a lady with an amazing story of her own) and left to get married. When the mistress inherited her sister’s house and title, she and her companion decided they needed some servants, and she invited Mrs. Wells back to be the housekeeper. By this time Mrs. Wells had three nearly grown sons, the youngest of whom (aged 13 at the time) was Herbert George Wells, known to most people now as H.G. Wells and famous for his story The War of the Worlds, as well as many other works, in some of which he gave both factual and fictional glimpses of his mother’s life as a housekeeper. Mrs. Wells also kept a kind of diary during her tenure as housekeeper in which she wrote about a line a day about her life and work.Ellen Penketh was cook-housekeeper at Erddig in North Wales from 1902 to 1907. The records concerning her come mostly from her trial for theft. She was afterward known as the thief-cook and spent time in jail for her supposed crime.Hannah Mackenzie worked at Wrest Park from 1914-1915 when the house was turned into a hospital for soldiers during World War I. She was let go after about a year, apparently for being too close to the men. She went on to work for the Vanderbilts in America for several years and ultimately lived to the ripe old age of 102.Grace Higgins worked for the Bells of the Bloomsbury group. They were apparently famous artists who lived a really odd Bohemian lifestyle. She started out with them in London and traveled with them some, but eventually wound up primarily in a country house called Charleston. Her employers were friends with all sorts of famous people – writers, poets, etc., and Grace knew them too by extension. She also kept a little diary of her own. She eventually married while she was in their employ and had a son. She was with them through World War II and stayed until 1971 before retiring.

Well worth the read/listen, since there aren't any other first-hand accounts (that I'm aware of) from a housekeeper's point of view during this era (late Victorian through Edwardian). But this book gives us not one but several stories of different housekeepers some more interesting than others. The account of the housekeeper for the Bloomsbury Group was particularly interesting, and is of historical value if only for that. For all their celebrated progressivism, most (not all) of them were, at heart, Toffs. Their blatant judgmentalism, self importance, and spoiled thoughtlessness was, frankly, shocking, mostly because I had assumed they were quite above all that. Nope, not really. Turns out that, generally speaking, most new bosses are, at heart, about the same as the old bosses, irrespective of their so-called enlightened social views. When it comes down to it, each of us is pretty much a reflection of our own time.

The only real "history" in here is the history of some of the great houses themselves, not the people who worked in them. Some of the owners are covered fairly well from personal accounts but not the servants. Very little history of the actual people is presented. Most of that is speculation and phrases such as "let's imagine", "we can only guess", "it's probable", "not enough information to", and so on. So it's not really stories of the actual people since they left little to no written documentation. I suggest you skip this for something a little more real.

I really had to push myself to finish this book! There were interesting parts but then lots of waffling in between. I wish the pictures were with each of their stories. By the time I got to look at them I had forgotten who was what! I thought it was great comparing a housekeeper now compared to housekeepers of old. So I am glad I pushed through to the end.

An insightful and well-written look inside the world of the little people who worked in England's big houses, specifically the indispensable housekeeper (think of Mrs. Hughes from Downton Abbey), over the past 200 years. If you have an interest in the lives of those who ;lived and worked in "Period Houses" you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Prepare to be shaken, saddened and exhilarated by what you read. Tessa Boase has done her work very well.

I have read several of the other "servant" type of books and this one doesn't come close in comparison. I thought it would be about one woman being a housekeeper in England and it was about lots of housekeepers and the problems the employers had with them. I've read the books about the cooks and the maids and they were informitive and funny this was boring. I wouldn't buy it again.

I loved this book. What a change from the privileged lives I normally read about. Opens your eyes to a new world, not a glamorous but just as interesting

I liked the way the story started and ended. The character sure lived a long life , wow she had a happy life.

A lot of interesting research underpins this book and in consequence it contains some valuable sidelights on the history of the housekeepers who directed domestic servants in large country houses.Unfortunately it suffers from two glaring flaws. It contains far too much of the author's modern (and therefore anachronistic) views on the families who owned the houses, and their lifestyles; and it also contains a good deal of text which is mere speculation on the thoughts, motives and actions of the housekeepers and sometimes other people, with no evidence underpinning that speculation. This latter failing take sit out of the realm of a work of history and into that of the novel. Perhaps its title is apt.Some people will not mind this, but they should be aware of what they are getting.

If I could go 3 and a half I would but then again I would feel guilty as this book is so beautifully written and researched. I'm a sucker for the glamour and flashiness of the 19th and 20th centuries and that's why the book isn't exactly to my taste as it really is the housekeepers tale! Title kinda gave it away! So instead it's about how these women lived so precariously on the whims of other women who through an accident of birth held the fate of so many in their hands and yet they were all prisoners to something or someone. There is no temptation to follow the lady of the houses story rather than the housekeepers and I respect the author for that. Each story is about a different kind of household starting at the richest family in the country and ending with a relatively modest farmhouse. Nothing is heavy about this book, it's informative, enjoyable reading but it just didn't have enough juice for me.

This is a totally fascinating book. 6 big houses or stately homes, six housekeepers through the ages, and what they had to do. The mistresses they worked for or under, the other staff (or servants as they were called then), and the hierachy. It is intriguing and so well researchedI hope she writes a book about butlers next.Right at the end, Tessa adds another modern day housekeeper from a well known stately home, not in the index, just a brief throw away few pages which really shows how our lives and their lives have changed in 200 years.

This book is a brilliant piece of social history charting the lives of five very different housekeepers, plus two others who feature as the prologue and epilogue. By carefully selecting the housekeepers the book follows a chronological order from the 1830's through to the late 20th Century.The author has very meticulously researched these ladies and the families they served, using all the tools available to family historians, which really helps to make them come alive, added to which she has a lovely style of prose ideally suited to the material. Always interesting, never dry and dusty. The fact that two of the houses the housekeepers worked in are in Sussex near my home, made it all the more interesting for me. Another interesting addition was a short time line at the beginning of each story which detailed social and industrial developments during the period. For example 1922 AGA cooker patented, 1923 first fridge freezer, 1928 women get equal voting rights etc.What was also very obvious was just how hard these women worked - seven days a week 18 hour days were not uncommon, with no sick leave, holidays and minimal job security; they really could be thrown out on the whim of the employer, and without the all important 'character' (reference) another be would be almost impossible to secure.This really was a fantastic book and one that I will definitely be reading again.

I loved every word of this book. I myself was a House Keeper for15 yrs in the beginning in the Eighties. Reading this book brought back some wonderful memories. I had a three year old son who came to work with me. It’s a hard life and you are never really “off duty”. So thank you for The Housekeeper’s Tale. A book worth reading if you have ever been in service.