Deborah Devonshire is a natural writer with a knack for the telling phrase and for hitting the nail on the head. She tells the story of her upbringing, lovingly and wittily describing her parents (so memorably fictionalised by her sister Nancy); she talks candidly about her brother and sisters, and their politics (while not being at all political herself), finally setting the record straight.Throughout the book she writes brilliantly about the country and her deep attachment to it ...

Entertaining, instructive, thought-provoking and hilarious, the unmistakeable voice of Deborah Devonshire rings out of this volume which combines her two collections of 'occasional' writings - Home to Roost and Counting My Chickens.The pieces are broad and eclectic in their subjects, ranging from treasures unearthed while the kitchen was being redecorated, musings about the reason for the reworded town sign, tourism at Chatsworth, a ringside view of both John F. K...

'My father would not have wasted time reading -- a trait I have inherited from him.'The unmistakeable voice of Deborah Devonshire, the youngest of the Mitford sisters, rings out of this second volume of her occasional writings. As broad and eclectic as her long and eventful life, the pieces range from a ringside view of John F. Kennedy's inauguration and funeral, a valedictory for her local post office, the 1938 London season, Christmas at Chatsworth and the hazards of shopping for...

In spring 1956, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire - youngest of the six legendary Mitford sisters - invited the writer and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor to visit Lismore Castle, the Devonshires' house in Ireland. This halcyon visit sparked off a deep friendship and a lifelong exchange of sporadic but highly entertaining letters.There can rarely have been such contrasting styles: Debo, unashamed philistine and self-professed illiterate (though suspected by her friends of being a secret...

**“Engrossing…the first formal biography of a woman who has heretofore been relegated to the sidelines.”–The New York TimesFrom the author of the New York Times bestseller A Woman of No Importance, a long overdue tribute to the extraordinary woman who was Winston Churchill’s closest confidante, fiercest critic and shrewdest advisor that captures the intimate dynamic of one of history’s most fateful marriages.**Late in life, Winston Churchill claimed that v...

“A vivid, entertaining and often comical portrait of life at court.” —Wall Street Journal“Compelling. . . . The rhythm of court life at Windsor or Balmoral is the backdrop to a rich human drama, a story of people existing in uneasy intimacy with the royal family.” — Daily Telegraph (London)Based on the letters and diaries of six members of Queen Victoria's household, Serving Victoria offers unique insight into the queen and her court. Seen through the eyes of her servants—i...

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, ...

Since its purchase in 1604 by Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, the house at Knole, Kent, has been inhabited by thirteen generations of a single aristocratic family, the Sackvilles. Here, drawing on a wealth of unpublished letters, archives and images, the current incumbent of the seat, Robert Sackville-West, paints a vivid and intimate portrait of the vast, labyrinthine house and the close relationships his colourful ancestors formed with it.Inheritance is the story o...

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...

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...

A New York Times–bestselling biographer "evokes the luminous spirit of Kick Kennedy" in this account of the beloved socialite and sister of JFK ( Vanity Fair).Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy was the incandescent life-force of the fabled Kennedy family, her father's acknowledged "favorite of all the children" and her brother Jack's "psychological twin." She was the Kennedy of Kennedys, sure of her privilege, magnetically charming and somehow not quite like ...

A life of love and glamour as a 19th Century British Duchess: the perfect read for fans of BRIDGERTON and DOWNTON ABBEY'Wonderfully evocative [...] now reissued in an elegant new edition' ― Country LifeConsuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfil her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leavi...