This delightful memoir provides a unique 'Upstairs, Downstairs'account of what life was really like in a bygone era.At the age of sixteen, Flo Wadlow left her family to begin what would become a distinguished life 'in service'. Starting as a kitchen maid in London, she soon rose through the ranks and worked at many of England's great houses including Woodhall in Hilgay where she met scullery maid Mollie Moran, author of Aprons and Silver Spoons; Hatfield House and Bl...

This delightful memoir provides a unique "Upstairs, Downstairs" account of what life was really like in a bygone eraAt the age of sixteen, Flo Wadlow left her family to begin what would become a distinguished life "in service." Starting as a kitchen maid in London, she soon rose through the ranks and worked at many of England's great houses, including Woodhall in Hilgay, where she met scullery maid Mollie Moran, author of Aprons and Silver Spoons; and Hatf...

The Blitz had made many families in the East End of London homeless. One solution was to erect prefabs on fields and open spaces to give temporary accommodation to those who had been bombed out. It was in one of these 'modern' boxes that young Norman Jacobs grew up through the 1950s and 1960s. In a lively, detailed and humorous picture of a postwar Hackney childhood, Norman takes us back to an age of rationing, bomb sites, street markets, colourful characters and camaraderie. And in remini...

Grace is a kitchenmaid but, unlike her mother, Polly, she doesn't enjoy life inside the house; she'd much rather be working in the stables with the horses. Cricket teas and shooting-party luncheons will soon become a distant memory, however. It's 1914 and war is about to turn the country upside down. Soon all the young male servants are leaving to fight in France, while trainloads of wounded soldiers arrive at the Hall to convalesce. Grace can see at firsthand the terrible effects of war, ...

It's 1939 and Isobel is visiting her grandmother, Polly, the housekeeper at crumbling Swallowcliffe Hall. Izzie's meant to be resting after a serious illness but with talk of war on everyone's lips, life is anything but peaceful, even deep in the English countryside. Izzie meets Andreas, a Jewish boy who has fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransporte: the evacuation of thousands of Jewish children to safety in Britain. He's left his family behind and now they're in terrible danger. If war b...

"William Tallon was a creature of extremes: though intensely loyal, he was also a dangerous risk-taker; though charming, he could also be vicious; though considerate and amusing, he could be ruthless and predatory. For much of his life he was driven by two demons: a powerful sex drive and an intense, almost pathological love for the Queen Mother…”From humble beginnings as a shopkeeper’s son in Coventry to ‘Page of the Backstairs’ at Clarence House, William Tallon, or ‘Back...

'I THOUGHT I'D GONE TO A PRISON'This was Hilda Newman's first impression when, at the age of 19, she left her parents' little terraced cottage in Lincolnshire and embarked on a new life as a lady's maid at Croome Court, the enormous stately home of Lord and Lady Coventry.The year was 1935: the twilight of the English aristocracy. It was a time of wealth and glamour; of lavish balls and evening gown; of tiaras and a Coronation. As personal maide to Lady Coventry, Hilda had a unique insight ...

For 'Downton Abbey' fans: a new title in the popular Swallowcliffe Hall series! This is the journal of Eugenie Vye: the prettiest debutante of the 1890 season, with hair she can sit on and a seventeen-inch waist – yet somehow three years later, still unmarried. Lord Vye's daughter might be thought to want for nothing, but life isn't easy on fifty guineas a year with a jealous stepmother watching one's every move. Eugenie's passionate nature and unerring ability to get hold of the wrong end...

Polly Perkins can hardly believe her luck when she is taken on as under-housemaid at Swallowcliffe Hall. At first it's all she can do to keep up, with endless fires to be laid and beds to be made, never mind when guests arrive from London for a country house party. Will she ever feel at home in this grand old house, full of whispers and ghosts from the past? But friendship and comfort are found in unexpected places and Polly slowly becomes used to her new life - until the discovery of a tr...

'A brilliant memoir of a strong woman' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review'A must-read that will break your heart but also make you laugh' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazon reader review'Oi, Hilda, the sign outside says you're frying today but I ain't seeing nothing done in ere!' The voice cut through my daydream. Already there was a queue of hungry customers on the cobbled street of London's East End.In 1950s and 60s Bermondsey, the fish-an...

Discover a more lighthearted side of the funeral industry in this collection of real-life stories from the authors of Mortuary Confidential.Not knowing what to do, I sat on the church steps and waited. As the gravity of my failure began to well up in me, I began to cry . . . I Had Lost The Hearse!Funerals and the all the things that accompany them are traditionally somber, contemplative events in which the bereaved look to their undertaker...

From America to Bermondsey, a story of hope, heartbreak and hardship, by the bestselling author of Custard Tarts and Broken Hearts.London, 1930.He promised her the earth. She found herself in hell.Handsome Frank Rossi took Matty Gilbie away from her working class roots in Bermondsey, East London and promised her fame and fortune. In America, the Cockney Canary would become a ...