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The international success of Downton Abbey has led to a revived interest in period dramas, with older programs like The Forsyte Saga being rediscovered by a new generation of fans whose tastes also include grittier fare like Ripper Street. Though often criticized as a form of escapist, conservative nostalgia, these shows can also provide a lens to examine the class and gender politics of both the past and present. In Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey, James Leggott and Julie Anne Taddeo provide a collection of essays that analyze key developments in the history of period dramas from the late 1960s to the present day. Contributors...
A weekend in the country goes awry in Fay Weldon’s wickedly entertaining novel of lust, avarice, and murder Nineteen-year-old Elsa is poor in material goods, but rich in looks. Her employer and lover, forty-four-year-old Victor, used to be a tax accountant. Now he’s an antique dealer who gave up his family for Elsa, and together they live in a room behind his shop. For her birthday, Victor is treating Elsa to a weekend in the country, courtesy of his rich friends, Hamish and his wheelchair-bound wife, Gemma, who mistakes Elsa for Victor’s daughter. Not the most propitious way to start the weekend. Things go from bad to worse when Gemma starts treating Elsa like a home wrecker and Victor proposes a partner swap. Elsa is about to discover the darker side of “happily ever after” in this story about love, life, and fairy tales that never come true.
This is the book that put Britain's 'heritage industry' on the map, opening one of the defining cultural and political debates of its time, and showing why conservation was a subject of broad significance, far broader than its professional status might suggest.
TEXT ONLY EB EDITION Downton Abbey has captured the imagination of the nation. Written by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes the show has become the benchmark for quality drama, and a commentary on all things British.
Arriving at the great houses of 1920s London, fifteen-year-old Margaret’s life in service was about to begin... As a kitchen maid – the lowest of the low – she entered an entirely new world; one of stoves to be blacked, vegetables to be scrubbed, mistresses to be appeased, and even bootlaces to be ironed. Work started at 5.30am and went on until after dark. It was a far cry from her childhood on the beaches of Hove, where money and food were scarce, but warmth and laughter never were. Yet from the gentleman with a penchant for stroking the housemaids’ curlers, to raucous tea-dances with errand boys, to the heartbreaking story of Agnes the pregnant under-parlourmaid, fired for being s...
The Downstairs Cookbook offers genuine 1920s recipes from bestselling author Margaret Powell, the house maid and cook who shared tales from her years of service in Below Stairs and inspired the original Upstairs Downstairs TV series. Now in this cookery book she offers a collection of sweet and savoury courses that the servants regularly prepared for their masters upstairs, accompanied throughout by her heartwarming anecdotes from life in service. The recipes include retro classics such as kedgeree, jugged hare and angels on horseback as well as more adventurous offerings such as lobster soufflé and veal quenelles. With separate chapters on pastry and preserves, this is Margaret Powell’s complete cook’s manual for a 1920s household.
"A ... novel about a young American woman who finds love and fulfillment in the course of her involvement with a Downton Abbey-style TV show in England"--