Listen free for 30 days
-
The Housekeeper's Tale
- The Women Who Really Ran the English Country House
- Narrated by: Tessa Boase
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: History, Europe
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £23.49
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Aprons and Silver Spoons
- The Heartwarming Memoirs of a 1930s Kitchen Maid
- By: Mollie Moran
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At just 14, Mollie Moran left the Norfolk countryside to take up a position in the kitchens of a stately London townhouse. Getting through the endless chores, sneaking out with her best friend Flo the kitchen maid to go dancing at night, and flirting with Alan the footman and Harrods errand boys, Mollie quickly rose through the ranks. We see the “upstairs, downstairs” world through Mollie’s eyes: the politics and scandals, the friendships and secret liaisons, the many comings and goings.
-
-
Aprons and Silver Spoons
- By Patricia Morley on 07-08-18
-
A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England
- By: Suzannah Lipscomb
- Narrated by: Suzannah Lipscomb
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join historian Suzannah Lipscomb as she reveals the hidden secrets of palaces, castles, theatres and abbeys to uncover the stories of Tudor England. From the famous palace at Hampton Court where dangerous court intrigue was rife, to less well-known houses, such as Anne Boleyn's childhood home at Hever Castle or Tutbury Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, follow in the footsteps of the Tudors in the places that they knew.
-
-
love love love
- By Amazon Customer on 14-05-22
-
1939: The Last Season
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The season of 1939 brought all those 'in Society' to London. The young debutante daughters of the upper classes were presented to the king and queen to mark their acceptance into the new adult world of their parents. They sparkled their way through a succession of balls and parties and sporting events. As the hot summer drew on, the newspapers filled with ever more ominous reports of the relentless progress towards war. There was nothing to do but wait - and dance.
-
-
A Dangerous Time Well Described
- By Robert on 15-11-21
-
How to Be a Tudor
- A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Tudor era encompasses some of the greatest changes in our history. But while we know about the historical dramas of the times, what was life really like for a commoner? To answer this question, the renowned 'method historian' Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did. She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life, from how they slept to how they courted.
-
-
FULL OF INTERESING INFORMATION
- By Amazon Customer on 30-06-17
-
Victorian London
- The Life of a City, 1840-1870
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like her previous books, this book will be the result of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life, and the conditions in which most people lived, so often left out of history books. This period of mid-Victorian London encompasses a huge range of subjects.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Heather on 09-08-06
-
Queen Bees
- Six Brilliant and Extraordinary Society Hostesses Between the Wars - A Spectacle of Celebrity, Talent, and Burning Ambition
- By: Siân Evans
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queen Bees looks at the lives of six remarkable women who made careers out of being society hostesses, including Lady Astor, who went on to become the first female MP, and Mrs Greville, who cultivated relationships with Edward VII, as well as Lady Londonderry, Lady Cunard, Laura Corrigan and Lady Colefax. Told with wit, verve and heart, Queen Bees is the story of a form of societal revolution and the extraordinary women who helped it happen.
-
-
Educational and Informative!
- By Fiona on 06-12-16
-
Aprons and Silver Spoons
- The Heartwarming Memoirs of a 1930s Kitchen Maid
- By: Mollie Moran
- Narrated by: Nicolette McKenzie
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At just 14, Mollie Moran left the Norfolk countryside to take up a position in the kitchens of a stately London townhouse. Getting through the endless chores, sneaking out with her best friend Flo the kitchen maid to go dancing at night, and flirting with Alan the footman and Harrods errand boys, Mollie quickly rose through the ranks. We see the “upstairs, downstairs” world through Mollie’s eyes: the politics and scandals, the friendships and secret liaisons, the many comings and goings.
-
-
Aprons and Silver Spoons
- By Patricia Morley on 07-08-18
-
A Visitor's Companion to Tudor England
- By: Suzannah Lipscomb
- Narrated by: Suzannah Lipscomb
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join historian Suzannah Lipscomb as she reveals the hidden secrets of palaces, castles, theatres and abbeys to uncover the stories of Tudor England. From the famous palace at Hampton Court where dangerous court intrigue was rife, to less well-known houses, such as Anne Boleyn's childhood home at Hever Castle or Tutbury Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned, follow in the footsteps of the Tudors in the places that they knew.
-
-
love love love
- By Amazon Customer on 14-05-22
-
1939: The Last Season
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The season of 1939 brought all those 'in Society' to London. The young debutante daughters of the upper classes were presented to the king and queen to mark their acceptance into the new adult world of their parents. They sparkled their way through a succession of balls and parties and sporting events. As the hot summer drew on, the newspapers filled with ever more ominous reports of the relentless progress towards war. There was nothing to do but wait - and dance.
-
-
A Dangerous Time Well Described
- By Robert on 15-11-21
-
How to Be a Tudor
- A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Everyday Life
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Tudor era encompasses some of the greatest changes in our history. But while we know about the historical dramas of the times, what was life really like for a commoner? To answer this question, the renowned 'method historian' Ruth Goodman has slept, washed and cooked as the Tudors did. She is your expert guide to this fascinating era, drawing on years of practical historical study to show how our ancestors coped with everyday life, from how they slept to how they courted.
-
-
FULL OF INTERESING INFORMATION
- By Amazon Customer on 30-06-17
-
Victorian London
- The Life of a City, 1840-1870
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Anton Lesser
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like her previous books, this book will be the result of the author's passionate interest in the realities of everyday life, and the conditions in which most people lived, so often left out of history books. This period of mid-Victorian London encompasses a huge range of subjects.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Heather on 09-08-06
-
Queen Bees
- Six Brilliant and Extraordinary Society Hostesses Between the Wars - A Spectacle of Celebrity, Talent, and Burning Ambition
- By: Siân Evans
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queen Bees looks at the lives of six remarkable women who made careers out of being society hostesses, including Lady Astor, who went on to become the first female MP, and Mrs Greville, who cultivated relationships with Edward VII, as well as Lady Londonderry, Lady Cunard, Laura Corrigan and Lady Colefax. Told with wit, verve and heart, Queen Bees is the story of a form of societal revolution and the extraordinary women who helped it happen.
-
-
Educational and Informative!
- By Fiona on 06-12-16
-
How to Be a Victorian
- By: Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Patience Tomlinson
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We know what life was like for Victoria and Albert. But what was it like for a commoner like you or me? How did it feel to cook with coal and wash with tea leaves? Drink beer for breakfast and clean your teeth with cuttlefish? Dress in whalebone and feed opium to the baby? Surviving everyday life came down to the gritty details, the small necessities and tricks of living. Drawing on Ruth's unique firsthand experience gained from living on a Victorian farm for a year, this book will teach you everything you need to know about 19th-century living.
-
-
Ruth puts it in the back of the net AGAIN!
- By mat brown on 07-09-18
-
Daughters of Britannia
- By: Katie Hickman
- Narrated by: Katie Hickman
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this fascinating BBC Radio series, Katie Hickman examines the lives of 'diplomatic women' through their letters and diaries. From the first exploratory expeditions into foreign lands, through the heyday of the British Empire and still today, the foreign service has been shaped and run behind the scenes by the wives of ambassadors and minor civil servants.
-
Her Brilliant Career
- By: Rachel Cooke
- Narrated by: Jenny Funnell
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her apron and rubber gloves, the woman of the Fifties has become a cultural symbol of all that we are most grateful to have sloughed off. But what if there was another side to the story? In Her Brilliant Career, Rachel Cooke tells the story of ten extraordinary women whose pioneering professional lives - and complicated private lives - paved the way for future generations.
-
Debs at War
- 1939-1945
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Rachel Atkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pre-war debutantes were members of the most protected, not to say isolated, stratum of 20th-century society: the young (17-20) unmarried daughters of the British upper classes. For most of them, the war changed all that for ever. It meant independence and the shock of the new, and daily exposure to customs and attitudes that must have seemed completely alien to them. For many, the almost military regime of an upper class childhood meant they were well suited for the no-nonsense approach needed in wartime.
-
-
Illuminating
- By Safist on 23-03-22
-
Jane Austen at Home
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Ruth Redman, Lucy Worsley
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the world in which our best-loved novelist lived. This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the rooms, spaces and possessions which mattered to her and the way in which home is used in her novels to mean both a place of pleasure and a prison. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms; in fact her life was often a painful struggle.
-
-
Outstanding!
- By Gabrielle Harvey-Jones on 27-05-17
-
The Mistresses of Cliveden
- By: Natalie Livingstone
- Narrated by: Carole Boyd
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From its dawn in the 1660s to its twilight in the 1960s, Cliveden was an emblem of elite misbehaviour and intrigue. Conceived by the Duke of Buckingham as a retreat for his scandalous affair with Anna-Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury, the house later served as the backdrop for the Profumo affair. In the 300 years between, the house was occupied by a dynasty of remarkable women each of whom left their mark on this great house.
-
-
Much More Than A Book About A House
- By Alison on 28-02-17
-
The Final Curtsey
- A Royal Memoir by the Queen's Cousin
- By: Margaret Rhodes
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Sunday Times number one bestseller in the United Kingdom, this is the intimate and revealing autobiography of Margaret Rhodes, first cousin of Queen Elizabeth II and niece of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Margaret was born into the Scottish aristocracy, into a now almost vanished world of privilege. Royalty often came to stay, and her house was run in the style of Downton Abbey. During the Second World War, she "lodged" at Buckingham Palace while she worked for MI5.
-
Queen Victoria
- Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow
- By: Lucy Worsley
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson, Lucy Worsley
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author and historian Lucy Worsley tracks a new course through Queen Victoria's life, examining how she transformed from dancing princess to the Widow of Windsor and became one of Britain's greatest monarchs along the way. Taking 24 significant days from Victoria's life, from her birth, her wedding and her coronation to her husband's death, and many more in between, allows us to see Victoria up close and personal, examining how she lived hour to hour.
-
-
Excellent book
- By Samantha cross on 27-09-18
-
Ladies in Waiting
- A History of Court Life from the Tudors to the Present Day
- By: Anne Somerset
- Narrated by: Sophie Roberts
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries, the most beautiful, able and aristocratic women in England competed for positions at court. Some who came to serve were remarkable for their learning and exemplary virtue, but others were notable for promiscuity and lack of scruple, drawn to court by a lust for money and power. Several ladies-in-waiting became royal mistresses, showing few qualms about betraying the queen consorts they ostensibly served.
-
-
Amazing research
- By G Oakley on 15-03-21
-
The Husband Hunters
- Social Climbing in London and New York
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage, bringing with them all the fabulous wealth, glamour and sophistication of the Gilded Age. Anne de Courcy sets the stories of these young women and their families in the context of their times. Based on extensive firsthand research, drawing on diaries, memoirs and letters, this richly entertaining group biography reveals what they thought of their new lives in England - and what England thought of them.
-
-
Husband Hunters
- By NanaRose on 27-11-17
-
The Paper Garden
- An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72
- By: Molly Peacock
- Narrated by: Jill Tanner
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Paper Garden, celebrated poet Molly Peacock explores the remarkable life of 18th-century British gentlewoman-turned-artist Mary Delany. In the 1770s, at the age of 72, the twice-widowed and nearly broke Delany turned her interest in botany into beautiful paper “mosaick” flowers still revered today.
-
-
Very interesting story, great narrator
- By Nick Rodrigues on 30-12-20
-
Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue
- The Story of an Accidental Family
- By: Lynn Knight
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lynn Knight tells the remarkable story of the three adoptions, spanning three generations, within her remarkable family: of her great-grandfather, a fairground boy, given away when his parents left for America in 1865; of her great-aunt, rescued from an industrial school in 1909; and of her mother, adopted as a baby in 1930, and brought to Chesterfield from London.
Summary
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.
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about The Housekeeper's Tale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Susan
- 22-02-17
Gripping stories, compulsive listening
Where does The Housekeeper's Tale rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Very good, almost like a radio drama to listen to, so many different 'voices' conjured up. Atmospheric music too. Fascinating subject.
What other book might you compare The Housekeeper's Tale to, and why?
Reminded me a bit of Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light - a quest to find forgotten and invisible voices.
What does Tessa Boase bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
Drama, humour, characterisation.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Too long in one sitting - but it's divided into six separate tales of different women, so easily divided up.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KirstyEm
- 11-06-18
Just wonderful
I have spent a week, driving my children to school, entrenched in the lives of several Cook/Housekeepers. So beautifully read by the author, I have been transfixed by the stories and the immense hardships some endured. Can not recommend this book highly enough. Just wonderful.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K. G. Harmon
- 15-11-16
Too many stars? Not really.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, I would because it is not only well researched but absorbing and moving.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Sarah Wells. Her plight late in life and the scrutiny of her famous son made this fascinating.
Have you listened to any of Tessa Boase’s other performances? How does this one compare?
Don't know of any.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There were too many to mention.
Any additional comments?
The voice is beautiful and modulated and appropriate to the content, though you can occasionally hear indignation bubbling under the surface.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jenna
- 03-11-17
Very interesting, well written & narrated
I liked the way the author selected several lives of housekeepers and went through them chronologically. It helped to show the evolution in the treatment of the women and how their roles evolved between c. 1800 and c. 1960. The author narrates very well and the insight into the lives of the housekeepers was very interesting.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 21-07-17
Interesting
This book was narrated perfectly well but I found the 'incidental ' music unpleasant, annoying and unnecessary.
The content of the book was interesting and thought provoking although I did feel that, at times, the author made some unwarranted assumptions.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Josie Lovett
- 22-11-21
Very enjoyable
A really interesting book and look at the undervalued housekeepers of great houses. Enjoyed the narration.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 18-01-20
A history of housekeepers
This started out well, but frankly found it boring long before half way, although reasonably well read and written, it failed to hold my interest, after about three quarters, I gave up and skipped to the end. As a lover of domestic history, I simple can’t recommend this book to anyone.
Should have sent this one back.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Zack Sydes
- 02-03-19
Absolutely Perfect
Fantastically written, and with a skilled narration to die for. I was hooked beginning to end.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 16-05-18
Great book
Engaging and well researched stories and lovely narrative by the author. Enjoyed and can recommend.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- H.A.B.
- 09-01-22
subject interesting BUT WASTE OF TIME & MONEY ....
I found the subject interesting but the book didn't do it for me ...
it is filled with lots of well researched information but put together in a row of statements & facts which makes it rather hard to listen to, bored me quickly, as it is just listing the numbers, and facts ....
truly disappointed by this book and find the many positive reviews surprising as they mislead me big time....
waste of time and money ...
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Pamela Jane
- 14-09-17
Utterly intriguing
If you could sum up The Housekeeper's Tale in three words, what would they be?
This is a meticulously researched and absorbing book, and a glimpse into the stories of the women who ran the country estates in the19th Century. My only reservation is with the production itself which employs over-wrought music to mark the introduction and chapters. Listeners of audio books prefer to have the words speak for themselves and not be assaulted by heavy-handed music which strives to set the mood or ramp up the drama. Still, I can't recommend the book itself highly enough.
Any additional comments?
AUDIO PRODUCERS: PLEASE STOP USING MUSIC IN RECORDED BOOKS!
38 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Juana Dement
- 31-07-17
good concept for a book
I really enjoyed the historical portion of this book. the narrator was easy to listen to and the story was equally as entertaining. That being said the music in between the chapters was too loud and it was like listening to Nails on a chalkboard.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Liz
- 07-04-18
A good book for my morning walks
First, let me just say I read many comments about the music being very loud and distracting and almost passed purchasing because of this. I did not feel it was as bad as mentioned, and just turned the volume down for the dozen times it came on. I listened to the entire book with headphones, while walking dogs, so don't be deterred by the music. I would have preferred to be without it, however.
I listened to this book most mornings and it put me in a better frame of mind when I then went about my own chores in life. What work these women did, often for no thanks and little pay. I believe it is good to look back into the past to see how far we all have come. I especially liked how the author included a small piece of the ending in current-times with a Housekeeper and what her role is, how she feels about the work, how her Lady treats her, etc. Not being English I find it all very interesting.
This book could have never been written without diaries, letters, and momentos that were saved through the decades and centuries. As a journal writer I love it all. If you take nothing away from this book, remember to save the written word for our future. Digital is nice, but the old fashioned hand written word can often last longer and be more telling than emails and texts.
I appreciated the many small chapters of this book, which made great starting and stopping points for me. I would guess I walked about 30 miles while listening to this book, every step entertaining. Thank you.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Harlingen gh
- 17-09-17
the music was jarring and too loud.
the music was too jarring & too loud after the soft voice. It hurt my ears & shocked me. then I would miss the first line. I will say the author did have a great narrator's voice.
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Marie
- 16-01-18
Fascinating
Riveting, informative, so well written that mundane details become exciting. I almost passed it up due to comments about the music- in total, music was about 1 minute of the entire recording, and was only for a few seconds at a time, so not a factor for me at all. The narrator was excellent and I am very happy I purchased this one.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- dawn
- 19-10-16
Good story - Awful music!
Good stories and narration - terrible music !!!!!! Glad I didn't live in that Era!!
14 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jenn
- 28-04-17
Good historical insight
What did you love best about The Housekeeper's Tale?
I loved the real-life stories of these housekeepers. Their memories are often lost to history and I appreciated the research that went into telling their stories.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Difficult choice- I liked all of them for different reasons.
What about Tessa Boase’s performance did you like?
She was easy to listen to.
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
How similar their stories are, despite spanning more than a century.
Any additional comments?
I really didn't care for the transition music between chapters and parts. To me, it took away from the story. I just want the audio of the text, delivered in a pleasant voice.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- mz
- 26-02-19
Rolling of saliva later in the book gets too much
For the last few hours of the book, the rolling of saliva every few sentences is just too noticeable to enjoy the book. I've turned the volume down, I've walked far away from the computer, and I can still hear it. It is gross and distracting and makes it difficult to listen to what she's saying. I got too annoyed to keep listening.
There are sounds of book page turning from time to time too. The author is actually a voiceover artist, but the production is still not as professional as the better books. I didn't have a problem with the music.
The book's content itself is fine. First 2/3 is more enjoyable. Last 1/3 has the problem above, and the stories are less interesting. The author's interjection of herself and her own role is kind of a turnoff. That should be something that's in the foreword and sticks to the foreword. It pulls you out of the 1800s into the present and have to think from the author's perspective, which is not that interesting and drags you out of the story. She keeps explicitly reminding you that some of the things are her imagination, which interrupts the story line.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Lala Lapin
- 24-10-17
Unique and deeply interesting
What was it like over the centuries to run a gigantic English house with little pay but much responsibility? This is the book that tells the story with involving, fascinating style. Highly recommended.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Mark
- 21-02-19
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.
1 person found this helpful